Kumlien's Gull - too hot to handle?

Last Saturday, I headed to Rainham to see the 2nd-winter Kumlien's Gull that had been frequenting the tip and adjacent River Thames. Then during the week (on 19th and 22nd) this bird transferred itself to Beddington. So it was a real surprise that at 12.10pm today that I picked up a 'white-winged gull' crusing over us all at Pitsea tip while we were waiting to take a second catch. Within seconds, when it decided to bank and drop, it was obvious it was the same Kumlien's Gull that had been hanging around the London area (as the dock off tail band and primary patterning is a real giveaway): -

Pretty chuffed with things, as everyone managed to get onto it pretty quickly, the excitement started to reach fever pitch. The compactors had started to slow down on the main tip, so there was a feeding frenzy in the trapping area. And then, as if by magic, this northern beauty decided to take a sneaky peak. With some skilful cannon netting, this 2nd-winter Kumlien's Gull can now hopefully be tracked conclusively with its new bling: -

This was apparently the first white-winged gull that the NTGG had ever caught, so there was inevitably some rather good feeling around. Is this also the first ever kumlieni to be ringed in Britain? The bird itself was remarkably docile, and was quickly processed as the weather was rather warm to keep birds for too long. So here is what this bird looked like up close and personal: -

pretty pale eyed; very little dark flecking

birders who saw this individual at Rainham commented on the obvious retained, darker greater-coverts - still noticeable in the hand

A lovely tail band

Grey feathering appearing on the mantle

Note the dark outer webs, especially to P7-10; also this shot illustrates the transluscent ghost mirror coming through on P10

Kumlien's Gull at Rainham

I had a few spare hours this morning before Karen and I headed down to see my niece in Surrey. So spurred on by reports and text messages yesterday, I made my first visit to Rainham since that gull last February. Pulling up at the stone barges, there was a lot of large gull action and I started off with a bit of ring reading as birds on the pier were just asking for their rings to be read. I then switched attention to the birds on the water, and amongst them was Dom's Kumlien's Gull from yesterday that had presumably just come off the tip: -

If I'm honest, one of the reasons that I wanted to see this bird was to confirm my suspicions about its previous residence. Upon seeing Dom's shots last night, I texted him to say it could well be the Dover bird - a thought that David B also had when I saw him this morning. However, despite trying to conclusively say that it is the same bird, I am struggling to say more than it superficially resembles the Dover bird. The Rainham bird still retains some blotching on its uppertail coverts, while the Dover birds uppertail coverts were completely white. In other respects - including its body and underwing - I also think the Dover bird was more advanced when I saw it two weeks ago.

Also, there was a second-winter Iceland Gull present - presumably the bird that has lingered in the area (and that I saw at Crayford earlier this year). Amongst the ringed gulls that I found was this first-winter that I suspect will have been ringed in a Suffolk breeding colony last summer: -

Compared to Crossness - where if I'm lucky I'd see either John A or Ian M - Rainham was an absolute birder fest. Loads of eyes inevitably meant more birds, and it was good to catch up with Sean H, Keith H, David B and Jonathan W amongst others.

2nd-winter Kumlien's/Iceland Gull comparisons

After those January storms that produced a load of kumlieni, perceived kumlieni, pale-winged kumlieni and whatever else people were trying to sniff out of the massive numbers of Iceland Gulls that reached our shores, it seems as though the show is now almost over. Just the odd bird continues to linger, including the second-winter I saw a few days ago in Dover that continues to cause a bit of controversy. Its Herring Gull-like structure has echoed calls from some of it being an aberrant individual of this species, something I disagree with.

Completely unenhanced image of the 2nd-winter Kumlien's Gull in Dover. Note the decent kumlieni pattern of obvious dark outer webs and primary shafts to the outermost 4-5 primaries (P6/7 to P10) contrasting with the pale inner primaries. There's also a nice ghost mirror on P10 too.

Perhaps this is actually the real deal? The fact that it doesn't necessarily feel like a nominate glaucoides isn't all bad, as those in the know rave on about the structural differences - with kumlieni being larger and longer-billed etc. All sniffs of turd for a field birder on a lone individual where sexual dimorphism is rife in larids, but who am I to argue.

Thing is though - what's really noticeable on this bird is its retained greyish/brown tail band. I imagine this bird last winter would have been a bit of a beast, with none of that squinting you need sometimes to see the apparent pigmentation on juvenile kumlieni. This bird will have been the real deal. However, the colour shade of the mantle feathering coming through on this bird is extremely dark - Herring Gull dark - but that's no issue. Have a look at this interesting article on adults (actually written by somebody who lives with kumlieni, instead of some pseudo-expert talking about what they see on the computer screen) and scroll down to mantle shade and you'll see what I'm on about. Particularly see how presumed glaucoides can so easily be picked out just on mantle shade from kumlieni.

For some reason there have been a lot of second-winter Iceland Gulls within this influx, and with this has come a lot of 2nd-winter Kumlien's Gull claims. And I got amongst this in Ireland a few weeks ago in true fashion. I'd been looking forward to seeing a 2nd-winter kumlieni up close and personal by the River Shannon at Limerick and was confronted by this bird, that in fairness put on a good show coming to our bread and an Afro-Caribbean woman's more exotic concoction of 'stuff'...

But what's important to mention with this bird is that it's not a Kumlien's Gull - it's one of those brown-washed Iceland Gulls and a pretty average one at that. The primaries are relatively concolourous, with not a hint of any ghost mirroring that you'd be looking for on a solid kumlieni. Additionally, there's no contrast with the outer and inner primaries with the wash extending throughout and though it's got a slightly darker eye than some 2nd-winter glaucoides, the tail band is pretty naff.

Right then, before I sign off for the night, it'd be rude not to whack out a couple of shots of 2nd-winter Iceland Gulls from my Irish trip a couple of weeks ago. They're pretty smart, albeit rather white and non-descript birds in many ways but you get a fair bit of variation in bare part colouration and moult!

2nd-winter Iceland Gull, Killybegs, Donegal Feb 2012

2nd-winter Iceland Gull, Reenard Point, Kerry Feb 2012

Hasta luego folks. Always discovering :)

Dover Kumlien's

I'd been meaning to get down to Dover for a while, ever since I was emailed the finder's photos of this 2nd-winter Kumlien's Gull a few weeks ago. At that time, I was pretty quick to email through my views that it was a pretty solid looking 2nd-winter Kumlien's Gull. So, with a nice neutral day of light (important for looking at the subtleties of this subspecies/cline), I headed down with Karen to get some first hand experience of this bird. Needless to say, in doing so, drove straight past perhaps one of the rarest birds in the country at the moment (??!!), a Hooded Merganser.

Anyway, back to the gull. Upon arriving in Dover - which in fairness to the place is attempting a bit of a face lift - it didn't take too long to find the bird. It was first of all chilling out on the slipway by the hoverpad before deciding to cruise above the Prince of Wales pier with Herring Gulls and a few nice Kittiwakes.

I'd not really seen a Kumlien's Gull like this previously, and if I'm brutally honest, it felt very Herring-like in its proportions; perhaps a good thing compared to a lot of the Iceland-like Kumlien's Gulls I've seen previously. Additionally, it displayed a very obvious tail and mirrors were apparent in P6-P10 (with an obvious ghosting of a mirror in P10). What was also very interesting was the rather dark adult-type mantle feathering that was moulting through, far darker than what you'd expect on nominate glaucoides Iceland Gulls, and perhaps even a Kumlien's Gull...

139 declared plus 10 ringers

I got back from Ireland late last night after an excellent 8 days of action with Alan C and Staines. Following the last blog post, where we'd been up in the north of the Republic, the last 4 days saw us head south through Clare, into Limerick briefly, and then to the extreme southwest taking in Cork and Kerry.

juvenile Kumlien's Gull at Kilbaha, County Clare

On Wednesday, we hit the spots that you so often do when the seawatching's quiet at the Bridges of Ross. But this February, with wingers everywhere, there were a load of gulls at the mouth of the River Shannon. The highlight was a juvenile Kumlien's Gull on rocks to the east of The Lighthouse Inn, along with 2 1st-winter Med Gulls. While up at the lighthouse at Loop Head 6 Iceland Gulls were cruising on the thermals, and near Carrigaholt we found a further 4 Iceland Gulls lapping up Rinvella Bay. Chough were spiralling around too, and sharp-eyed Staines picked out a nice Otter chilling out along the shore at Kilbaha too.

After a nice morning's work, I wanted to see the Kumlien's Gull that had been lingering in Limerick. So within an hour or two, we were in Stab City and I was severely disappointed: -

tenuous to say the least...

Squint and you may just about get a bit of colouration in those primaries

Even the pigeon has turned its head away in shame after looking at that (lack of a) tail band

Anyway, a nice Ring-billed Gull that flew over livened up proceedings before we headed south and spent the night in Bantry. Awakening to a bright morning on Thursday, we mooched to the harbourside where a 1st-winter ringer was playing ball early doors along with a dopey looking Iceland Gull.

This dopey guy didn't fancy its chances with gulls of its own size, so kept with the smalls in Bantry harbour.

Having had our fill of these guys above, we headed west and were soon in on the action at Castletown Bearhaven in southwest Cork. Here, with a few trawlers going in and out of southwest Ireland's largest fishing port, it was another winger fest. There were 13 Iceland Gulls and 4 Glaucs, as well as an adult Ring-billed Gull and 3 Mediterranean Gulls (including a ringed adult bird).

A trawler bringing in a few larids into Castletown Bearhaven

G-Unit

The rest of Thursday was pretty desperate, and a sole 3rd-winter Iceland Gull out towards Firkeel was all that we could find on the rest of the Beara peninsular. We rocked up pretty early doors at Waterville, ready for the last couple of days of the trip in County Kerry. Friday morning was pretty murky, so much so that after a 20 minute look into Ballinskelligs Bay for scoter, we decided to chalk it due to poor visibility and headed around the coast to check out the gulls at Portmagee. Another 'white-winged gull', but not not one to add to the totals as this bird was presumably an adult Herring lacking pigmentation in its primaries, though its slightly paler mantle compared to some of the nearby Herring Gulls perhaps suggests it's a Glaucous x Herring Gull hybrid? Structually, however, it fitted a Herring Gull.

Back to the real stuff though at Reenard Point, Cahersiveen. An adult Kumlien's Gull with darkish markings to P8-P10 was top of the haul, backed up by another 7 Iceland Gulls. Some lad from the nearby restaurant helped us out, emptying a load of fish scraps in front of us... which were devoured quickly by the gulls.

Note darkness on P10 extending onto both webs and down the primary shaft

Nearby on The Iveragh, the Spoonbill was still at Cromane, doing absolutely nothing but sleeping as usual, along with a second-winter Iceland Gull. However, we weren't going to hang about as the weather had closed in and we had more sites to hit and birds to see. Unfortunately the poor weather meant that we only gave Rossbeigh a token effort, as it was hopeless looking for scoter so who knows whether last year's rhinoceros was about? Probably not, but we couldn't be sure.

A super slick, relatively advanced 2nd-winter Iceland Gull at Reenard

The river just upstream of Blennerville had a couple of Ring-billed Gulls - an adult and a first-winter - while heading west along the north side of the Dingle peninsular produced my first Irish Lesser Scaup; a drake at the west end of Lough Gill. Despite there being 15 or so Greater Scaup on the lough, it kept with the Tufties. At Fermoyle, with relatively decent seas due to it being sheltered, there were 1000s of Common Scoter and a careful search through them produced a quality count of 12 Velvets and a Long-tailed Duck. The last hour or so of light was spent at Milltown, Dingle watching gulls come into the estuary and have a pre-roost wash. Again, there were loads of Iceland Gulls - 7 in total - plus a bird that seemed to fit the bill for a 2nd winter Kumlien's Gull. Whatever Kumlien's Gulls are anyway?

Note the uniformly biscuit-coloured primaries, darkening towards the tips.

 The next morning we headed back out to Milltown and spent a couple of hours watching the gulls again before breakfast. There was a real dark juvenile argentatus that had me going for a short while, before it decided to bare its rump. The previous day's Kumlien's-type Gull was still about, as was another bird that looked very similar; perhaps slightly paler on the body though it had retained a dark eye. I've seen worse Kumlien's claims this winter in Britain, but let's be honest, 2nd-winter Kumlien's Gulls this side of the spectrum can be proper bullsh*tter's birds and we don't necessarily know what's going on between Newfoundland and Iceland. Sure, these are northwestern birds but that's as far as you can often go.

Typical scene from this week's trip - a Glauc, a Kumlien's and 2 Iceland Gulls

Just one of 110 seen during the week

Anyway, a tour of other sites produced a couple more Iceland Gulls at Ferriter's Cove, though they quickly dispersed as some scrotes decided to practice their golf swing on the beach flushing all the gulls in the process. The final afternoon of the trip was spent bashing some sites close to Tralee - the highlight being a nice adult Ring-billed Gull at Barrow harbour and an adult Glaucous Gull at Carrahane Strand. 

Kittiwake in Dingle harbour

So, that's that. Despite lacking that little bit of proper bang - something like a Thayer's - I ended up seeing 4 Kumlien's Gulls (adult, 2 2nd winters, juvenile), 110 Iceland Gulls (25 adults/near adults, 4 3rd winters, 35 2nd winters, 46 juveniles), 25 Glaucous Gulls (2 adults, 1 3rd winter, 8 2nd winters, 14 juveniles) and 10 Ring-billed Gulls (7 adults, 1 2nd winter, 2 1st winters).

Surely worth more than £35?

Add in an American Black Duck, a Lesser Scaup, 4 vagrant Canada Geese, a Black Brant, 2 Ring-necked Ducks and a Tundra Bean Goose and it's easy to see why I'd recommend a week of chilled out birding along the Irish west coast in winter.