Isle of Wight Dec 25th-30th

I was back on my native Isle of Wight for the xmas period. It was almost like being on holiday in winter in southern Europe with a prolonged tropical airflow drawing in exceptionally mild air; we had 16 degrees C on boxing day. Had a very worn butterfly on the wing seen briefly but may have been a painted lady!, active honey and bumble bees, a hawthorn hedge coming out in bud, flowering primroses  and a dawn chorus comparable to March.
The birding was really good. A very confiding Grey Phalarope was at Yarmouth and I caught up with the long staying Greater Yellowlegs on the Medina Estuary, an addition to my IOW list. The yellowlegs was part of a great mornings birding with my bro which also featured Jack Snipe, Short-eared Owl and 2 Firecrest in the Medina area and a Black-necked Grebe off Ryde West Sands.
Potentially bird of the trip was a good candidate for a second winter American Herring Gull among gulls loafing in a field near Whale Chine (the flock also including an adult argentatus Herring Gull) on Dec 30th. I manged some digi-scoped record shots and going on the identification criteria for second winter AMG presented in the Dutch birding paper by Lonergan and Mullarney this bird ticks plenty of boxes...

This image represents nicely my first views of the bird and why it stood out. The pale grey wedge of adult type mantle feathers really stand out in comparison to the rest of the plumage which is extensively washed dark brown. The strongly marked neck collar and extensive brown blotching on the underparts would be unusual in a second  winter European HG. 

At first I couldn't figure out why the birds pose in this pic gave off a subtly different Jizz to a European HG. Now I think it's got to do with the bill; in the Dutch Birding article mention is made of many simthsonianus having parallel sided bills with little gonydeal angle.

A heavily cropped grainy image but it reinforces the impression of solid brown markings on hindneck merging with extensive brown blotched underparts. The bill pattern has an immature Glaucous Gull like feel to it;pale horn base and sharply demarcated black tip.

Again heavily cropped grainy image but the impression given is of extensive brown on the undertail coverts presumably as a consequence of dark centres to the undertail coverts. The article states that second winter AMG are variable in this respect with some retaining heavy barring like a first winter while others have dark centres. The latter a feature that appears to be unknown in European HG.

The extensive dark centres to the tertials are another promising feature; second winter European HG is more likely to show increased white areas and obvious barring.

So looks very interesting. One feature I didn't get a good look at was the uppertail pattern. But the bird did stretch it's wings briefly revealing promising looking all dark tail and strong barring on uppertail coverts.

With constant strong southerly to south-westerly winds, often gale force over the Christmas period  a storm blown sea bird was on the cards and a Grey Phalarope was duly found at Yarmouth Station Ponds. It's subsequently been joined by a second bird.

Bit of a novelty to have Med Gulls back to being really common after living in Scotland but always great looking birds. I took this photo at Freshwater Causeway on the Western Yar estuary where there was a constant turn over of Med's dropping into bathe and rest. I end ed up with a total of 81 birds.

On a similar theme Firecrest is a tricky bird to see in Scotland, but it looked to be particularly good for wintering birds on the IOW this second winter period and I had eight different birds during my stay.