Found by: B. Lancastle and P. Bowerman.

Severn Beach, May 1984: © A. Merritt.

On the morning of May 19, 1984 Paul Bowerman and I were sitting on the shingle at Severn Beach watching waders. A light early morning mist over the estuary had cleared by 9:15, leaving a clear sky, and visibility was excellent. There was a slight northerly wind. At 9:56, while scanning the shoreline to the south, I saw two gulls flying up the estuary virtually together, about three metres above the water. The second bird was obviously a first summer Black-headed Gull; but the leading and nearer bird, through a combination of black hood, general proportions and wing shape, gave a first impression of an adult Little Gull in summer plumage. This was not altogether an unexpected species, in view of the recent exceptional passage.

The birds passed within 35 metres of us as they continued along the shore, and eventually disappeared behind the sea wall. Later, an exhaustive search of the coastline further up the estuary failed to relocate this rather striking gull. The bird had been in view for only a short time, but its proximity and the excellent visibility allowed the following notes to be made.

It could not have been a Little Gull, as it was about the size of the Black-headed Gull, and the pattern on its upper wings was very distinctive. The upper coverts, the basal half of the secondaries and the basal area of the outer primaries were grey. In the bright light I could not judge the shade or tone of grey,' except that it was darker than the Black-headed Gull's. Paul more specifically described it as ashy or dusky. The outer primaries were 'dipped' with a triangular black area and somewhat recalled those of a Kittiwake; the ends showed no large white tips or mirrors, only a narrow white edge. A very noticeable feature was a white crescent across the primaries, which separated the black tips from the grey of the wing. This joined a broad, white trailing edge covering at least half the width of the secondaries, and gave the wing its unique appearance. The back and mantle were of the same grey as the wing. The under parts, tail, tail coverts and rump were white. I saw no trace of pale grey in the tail. The under wing was whitish except for the black primary tips. The head was black, with a white area around the eye. The bill was red, not particularly large or heavy. 

Franklin's Gull breeds inland by fresh-water marshes on the prairies, from western Canada south into the northern United States - hence a local name, the 'Prairie Dove'. It is highly migratory, wintering mainly south of the equator, on the west coasts of Central and South America. Individuals occasionally wander to the coasts of south and west Africa and north-west and of north-west Europe.

The first British or Irish records were in 1970: one at Farlington Marsh, Hants in February and one in Sussex in July. Two more appeared in 1977, and one in each of 1980, 1981 and 1982. The next was in Lancashire and Cheshire in February and March 1984, the Severn Beach bird was the ninth, and the tenth turned up in Cornwall in June 1984.

Brian Lancastle - May 1984.