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| J148E Second-calender Year Lesser Black-backed Gull (intermedius) |
The main aim of this blog is to allow me to share my wildlife and adventure photographs with like minded individuals. As well as birding and wildlife photography, I also enjoy mountain walking especially in winter, so expect some ramblings.
Thursday, 28 August 2014
Shawell Again
I spent the early part of the evening at Shawell again this Wednesday. Once again it was quite productive with a respectable total of nine colour rings being read including three from Norway.
Sunday, 24 August 2014
Juvenile Caspian Gull Re-visited
I have been going through my images of a juvenile Caspian Gull that I saw on three separate dates this month. I have changed my mind a couple of times as to whether it was the same bird, due to apparent differences in the photos on separate days. However, after Tom Lowe suggested it was the same bird, I had another look at the images and now I am happy to say I agree with him.
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| August 9th (overcast) |
The image above was taken on August 9th and when compared with the other photos on different days you can clearly see how different light effects the appearance of the gull.
Below is the same individual on August 13th and then the 20th:
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| August 13th (raining) |
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| August 20th (sunny) |
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| August 20th (sunny) |
Constructive comments are always welcomed.
Thanks for taking a look and Best Wishes,
Bag.
Saturday, 23 August 2014
Not Even Loved by its Mother
Today I started with a trip to Brascote Pits.
This site may be past its prime, because the best pool has dried out and a lot of areas are being choked by willows and scrub. However, I was pleased to see four Greenshanks and quite a few young warblers including a Lesser Whitethroat.
The skies were clear first thing and despite a cold wind the sun was very bright. The lay of the land at Shawell makes gulling difficult when it is sunny, so that's why I tore myself away from the gulls for a few hours. The cloud started to build up about 10 o'clock, so I set off to Cotesbach landfill site. It was bitterly cold there and a pair of gloves wouldn't have gone a miss whilst I endured some squally showers.
Initially the gulls were quite close and I soon picked up an adult Caspian Gull. Unfortunately one of the dumper truck drivers felt the need to drive through the flock, which pushed them further away from my viewing point.
This site may be past its prime, because the best pool has dried out and a lot of areas are being choked by willows and scrub. However, I was pleased to see four Greenshanks and quite a few young warblers including a Lesser Whitethroat.
The skies were clear first thing and despite a cold wind the sun was very bright. The lay of the land at Shawell makes gulling difficult when it is sunny, so that's why I tore myself away from the gulls for a few hours. The cloud started to build up about 10 o'clock, so I set off to Cotesbach landfill site. It was bitterly cold there and a pair of gloves wouldn't have gone a miss whilst I endured some squally showers.
Initially the gulls were quite close and I soon picked up an adult Caspian Gull. Unfortunately one of the dumper truck drivers felt the need to drive through the flock, which pushed them further away from my viewing point.
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| Adult Caspian Gull |
Thursday, 21 August 2014
Caspian Gulls
I had a good time gull watching (not gulling) at Shawell over the last couple of days. I read a total of 16 colour rings and saw three Caspian Gulls and quite a few Yellow-legged Gulls.
In The photo below the 1CY looks slightly odd structurally, but its bill ratio and primary projection seem OK. It is still too young to use the trait scoring system, but the traits that can be used are OK. It can make your head hurt trying to work out if a particular Caspian Gull is pure. Any opinions on this gull are welcomed, as I'm always keen to learn. You can either comment directly to the blog or email me. Comments on Blogger don't always seem to work, but I've found if you click on Preview after writing the comment it helps.
This 1CY is the same as the one seen on both the 9th and 13th August - see comments below.
The underwing is creamy white apart from a little bit of brown on the underwing coverts. This is typical of 1CY Cachinnans. Yellow-legged Gulls can show pale underwings, but not as pale as this. The clean white axillaries are also a good feature, as other juvenile large gulls should have heavily marked axillaries, or at least grey brown markings.
Just prior to seeing the 1CY Casp, I spotted an adult, which landed reasonably close and stayed long enough for me to get a few images. Its plumage is spot on: you can see the underside of the longest primary on the far wing and the pattern is text book good. The bill is also good, although its eyes are a little pale, but not as pale as Herring or Yellow-legged Gulls. Its legs are long and thin and the right colour.
The final one is a 2CY.
In addition to the three pictured here, I saw a very distant 2CY, which looked OK for Caspian Gull plumage wise, but structurally it was obviously not pure and had plenty of Herring Gull genes.
Below is one of the more interesting YLG's.
In The photo below the 1CY looks slightly odd structurally, but its bill ratio and primary projection seem OK. It is still too young to use the trait scoring system, but the traits that can be used are OK. It can make your head hurt trying to work out if a particular Caspian Gull is pure. Any opinions on this gull are welcomed, as I'm always keen to learn. You can either comment directly to the blog or email me. Comments on Blogger don't always seem to work, but I've found if you click on Preview after writing the comment it helps.
This 1CY is the same as the one seen on both the 9th and 13th August - see comments below.
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| 1CY Caspian Gull |
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| Nice White Underwing |
The underwing is creamy white apart from a little bit of brown on the underwing coverts. This is typical of 1CY Cachinnans. Yellow-legged Gulls can show pale underwings, but not as pale as this. The clean white axillaries are also a good feature, as other juvenile large gulls should have heavily marked axillaries, or at least grey brown markings.
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| Same as Above |
Just prior to seeing the 1CY Casp, I spotted an adult, which landed reasonably close and stayed long enough for me to get a few images. Its plumage is spot on: you can see the underside of the longest primary on the far wing and the pattern is text book good. The bill is also good, although its eyes are a little pale, but not as pale as Herring or Yellow-legged Gulls. Its legs are long and thin and the right colour.
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| Close Up |
The final one is a 2CY.
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| 2CY Caspian Gull (at the back) |
In addition to the three pictured here, I saw a very distant 2CY, which looked OK for Caspian Gull plumage wise, but structurally it was obviously not pure and had plenty of Herring Gull genes.
Below is one of the more interesting YLG's.
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| Beast of a 2CY Yellow-legged Gull |
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| Colour-ringed LBB Gull (J7MM), ringed as a chick during July 2010 in Norway |
Hookpod
Just a quick note to say that the Hookpod Team have been successful, with the help of those who donated, in reaching their target of £100,000. Hopefully they will do well with the trials and hopefully albatross bycatch will become a very rare event.
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