Gulls - the good and the ugly

In from a bit of a manic day, travelling down to Dungeness for my final KOS rarities panel meeting - 5 years done and dusted, enjoyed my time and I'd recommend anyone to do something like this at some stage if they can. The half hour before the meeting was spent with a longstaying northern beast of a Glaucous Gull.

the resident 3cy Glauc at Dunge

Before this, I had an early start and a morning with the gulls and the NTGG this morning. Really enjoyed it and learnt a lot about Herring Gulls too, with several argentatus studied in the hand; useful to understand how they're raced... more to come at some stage on this.

gulls on the tip

A nice adult Herring Gull

but not everyone is born with good looks...

SAHG

Photo 1. The adult culprit, Corvo, October 2011

You may remember back in late October I posted about a ‘Herring Gull’ that I saw on Corvo. Expert commentary on this came from Peter Adriaens, co-author of the seminal paper on adults in a European context (pdf of it here) – and he was helpful and honest as ever.

Peter concluded that there was nothing wrong for it being an American Herring Gull, but the lack of a Casp-like long pale tongue on P10 immediately reduced the chances of reliable identification. 69% of Newfoundland birds ('northern' American Herring Gulls, NAHGs) showed this feature in the sample that his article is based on. Pro AHG features included the all black outer edge to P10 (not broken by the white mirror) and the thin black W pattern on P5; as well as some bayoneting.

Photo 2. Note the leading edge of the wing is black, not broken by the P10 mirror and there is no mirror on P9. 90% of SAHGs show no mirror in P9 just like this. Keep reading...

I bloody said it at the time to Arthur when we saw the bird ‘I bet this is an American Herring Gull, it feels like one, looks like one but reckon it’s not one of those classics so we’ll never 100% clinch it’. And so I was right. This was not a pale-tongued NAHG that you could do for sure.

Photo 3. Still looks a real brute alongside this 1cy atlantis Yellow-legged Gull

So, I kind of left it at that, relatively happy that I’d remain unhappy with the predicament of being closer than close but never a cigar. Roll on December 2011 and a Canadian trip. Here I met up with some local gullers, and this is where my eyes really started to open. These guys watch AHGs all the time, know them inside out - better than us Europeans claiming expert status on sporadic trips/internet birding - and just like we make calls on argentatus and argenteus, it’s possible to make judgements on SAHGs (Great Lake birds) and NAHGs in the field. Interesting stuff.

Photo 4. adult SAHG, Toronto, December 2011; a classic individual, if not with a sightly larger than average white mirror in P10 that extends onto the leading edge of wing. Look at underside of P10 where the black extends way down the primary shaft, with no inkling of that casp-like pale tongue.

Photo 5. Compare the upperside of this bird's left wing (P5 to P10) with that of photo 2. Looks pretty bang on to me.

Kevin McLaughlin has really helped me out and I’ll be eternally grateful for this. SAHGs normally either show a wing pattern of a variable mirror on P10 (sometimes breaching the outer web) OR occasionally a mirror on P10 and a smaller mirror on P9, and a nice subterminal band on P5. The SAHGs in Toronto/Niagara also tallied with what Adriaens and Mactavish said about these birds compared to the Newfoundland NAHGs – ‘shorter grey tongues to P8-10, often no white mirror on P9 (in 90% of those examined), usually a complete black band on p5, and some black on p4 in quite a few birds. All birds had an uninterrupted black band between the white mirror and tip of P10.’

Photo 6. The exception rather than the norm - a SAHG with mirrors on P9 and P10, the latter extending across both webs.

Photo 7. An example of a SAHG with a black marking in P4; it seems as though this bird has dropped P6

Adriaens and Mactavish went on to say that SAHGs appeared smaller, with shorter legs, less sturdy bills, and more rounded heads than Newfoundland birds. So, what with these SAHGs not showing a pale square-ended tongue to the underside of P10 like your classic NAHGs, in a European context you’re more or less f*cked to be able to pick these boys out than brutish NAHGs?

Photo 8. Short-legged and variable head streaking. What I did find was that SAHGs leg colour was consistently bubblegum pink unlike the variability we see in European birds. Compare to photos 1 and 3.

I’ll come to that in a few days... or has a SAHG already occurred in Europe? It's certainly a less than classic NAHG. Have a look here and: -

Photo 9. The regular Nimmo's AHG. Any chance this bird would have passed the test if it hadn't been tracked? I'm currently looking for some underwing shots in flight, so if you have any please email me.

Birthday gulling

Sorry if you thought that I'd been to Killybegs, judging by the title. But unfortunately the hordes of white-winged gulls in the north and the west will have to wait a few weeks... but I'll be there for sure, in what seems to be a bumper year for wingers given the recent dearth over the last couple of winters.

But back to today. I had a lie in of sorts, jolly well deserved given it was my birthday. Just as I'd got up and about, John A called to say that Kittiwakes were on the move at Crossness; he'd had 6 west (upriver and in my direction) in half an hour. So I got ready and walked the 100 metres or so to Greenland Pier. Predictably nada in the Kittiwake scores (I've only ever had a couple here) but a 3rd-winter Yellow-legged Gull - complete with its blood red orbital ring - was at home on one of the groynes by the Thames Clipper stop. It felt like a truly urban gull, and the first one of the year here in Rotherhithe (had a couple - different birds - at the back end of 2011).

3rd-winter Yellow-legged Gull

Mooched around, had a nice brunch at a restaurant locally, read a couple of Black-headed Gull rings (the Belgian bird from 28th December was still around, along with some BTO rings), photographed some common stuff to pass the time and that was that. Another weekend gone.

1st-winter Common Gull

Junco in Hants

I had a really enjoyable, chilled out day with Karen and my parents in Hampshire today - got some decent enough views of the 1st-winter male Dark-eyed Junco that has been mooching around a car park and clear fell area near Beaulieu in the New Forest for the last week or so. The bird was associating with a few Reed Buntings, feeding continuously and pretty restless in its behaviour.

A hungry Junco

Remarkably this is only the second Dark-eyed Junco that I've seen in Britain and Ireland; the previous one being in Chester in 1998 that kept me busy feeding it; good memories of going to see it during free lessons and lunchtimes while in sixth form. They've been rather thin on the ground though recently, so this one seemed to be well appreciated. Plenty of Crossbills around this area too, but a late afternoon visit to Walpole Boating Lake, Gosport, failed to produce the hoped for Ring-billed Gull.

Hawkhill Inclosure, New Forest

Russian ring recovery

Had a really quick response to the colour-ringed Black-headed Gull I saw on New Year's day. The bird was ringed as a chick at Sosnovaya Polyana, St. Petersburg, Russia, on 10th June 2010 and its ringer, Dmitrijs Boiko, stated this was the first recovery of this bird since it was ringed. 1,280 miles from Crossness - Excellent stuff!

1,280 miles from St.Petersburg, Russia to Crossness, London

A Russian 3rd calendar year (just!!) Black-headed Gull

This is my first Russian-ringed Black-headed Gull I've had to date, but it's no surprise really considering a lot of the Thames winter gulls seem to push in from Eastern Europe and the Baltic states.

Also, two Lesser Black-backed Gulls (UL0T and GN6T) from New Year's day were much more typical - birds from the NTGG, with 1 from Rainham and 1 from Pitsea.

A bit more Casp loving

I left it pretty late to get out this morning, wanting to make the most of the last day of the holidays to have a decent sleep. But when I'd decided what to do, and on my way to Crossness, John A phoned to say that the adult Casp (the same as the one I'd found yesterday) was showing relatively well in the decent sunlight. Given that there wasn't a single Casp at Crossness in 2011, it was rude not to get amongst this classic beast from the east once again.

A total classic - beady, dark eye, parallel-sided bill with slight dark marking on gonys, tepid-coloured legs

Lovely sloped forehead, slightly dark mantle (on a par with argentatus perhaps, though lacking the bluish tinge) and loads of white in those primaries - a nice extensive white tip to P10

Rather burnt out image! But nice bayonets, with grey of the outer primaries extending into the black wingtips on the inner webs, on the upperwing, extensive white tip to P10 and pale underwing tongue.

Nice shot of the extensive pale tongue to P10, with the outer web wholly pale, and a narrow black band on the inner web. P9 with similarly extensive white tip to P10 with a slight black subterminal mark.

Once the Casp headed off over the river, having watching it for a fair while, I had a quick walk to the outfall - where there was little - and then back to the car.

Teal at Crossness - glad I don't have to grub around in the Thames mud for my dinner

Rotherhithe was pretty slow, with just the usuals in Russia Dock Woodland last knock-ins and this lovely breeding plumaged Herring Gull.

Midlands gull roost watchers be warned... it's that time of the year again. Do not use the 'white-headed' approach to Yellow-legged Gull identification; some Herring Gulls have already completed their head moult, feeling rather frisky too 

Crossness casp & colour-ringed ridibundus

Happy New Year by the way. I headed out just shy of 8 this morning to Crossness, and it was another one of those grim, grey mornings that made the Thames foreshore that bit more depressing that it often is. That is, until John A received a call from Dave Mo the other side of the river to say that there were a couple of Dark-bellied Brents sat on the mud in Barking Bay. Nice they were too, and a result for the day. While watching these birds, I scanned the near line of gulls - where there'd been a couple of 1st-winter Yellow-leggeds when I arrived - and there bang in the centre of my scope was a quality adult Caspian Gull, complete with the oft-quoted beady eye, rounded forehead and pale tongue to the underside of p10. At 9.40am, was this the first cachinnans of the year on British turf?

Caspo El Clasico. Almost as good to watch as Barcelona?

John A and I then had a mooch around Southmere, Thamesmead, where I found this bad boy, sporting a bit of bling. Seems like it's come to get us from Russia with Love... well, Latvia to be accurate. I reckon it's pretty nailed on from this ringing scheme.

presumed Latvian-ringed Black-headed Gull

South paddock was crap, although a Buzzard was half decent, and then we headed back to the river where the two Brents had flown a lot closer.

A check of the protected area and the paddocks produced nothing of real interest. Then the heavens opened, as the weather people had predicted, so I headed home with a sodden coat. Some things never change. Will I ever learn to go birding in suitable attire?