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Charlie M
Friday 10th February 2006, 15:26
Hi All,

I was in eastern Japan for a couple of days last week, and went to the fishing port of Choshi to look for gulls etc.

I've just posted a short report on my blog with photos of Vega, Black-tailed, Slaty-backed, Kamchatka, Glaucous, and Glaucous-winged Gulls, plus a few shots of some other species...

the URL is http://www.charliesbirdblog.com/~charlie/choshijan06/choshijan06.html

Cheers

Charlie
JANJ
Friday 10th February 2006, 17:33
Dream place the fishing port of Choshi, and very nice images!
What about a 3cy (2nd winter) Glaucous-winged Gull for the "very worn individual" Vega Gull. Take another look at the plain coverts, the bill and structure of the gull.
JanJ
Charlie M
Friday 10th February 2006, 18:26
Dream place the fishing port of Choshi, and very nice images!
What about a 3cy (2nd winter) Glaucous-winged Gull for the "very worn individual" Vega Gull. Take another look at the plain coverts, the bill and structure of the gull.
JanJ


Hi Jan

I'm really interested you say that, because this is one of those birds I really wasn't sure of. To me the bill didn't look "strong" enough for GW Gull, I've seen Vega with similarly plain coverts, and I'm not sure that the structure - from this angle - is much help. I ran it by my brother Nial (who's lived in Japan and Korea for 15 years) and he said that he couldn't be sure from this one photo: either a Vega or a GW, but he couldn't be certain which...

I know it's "cheating" slightly but I'll amend the caption to reflect the difficulty of this one...

Cheers
JANJ
Saturday 11th February 2006, 01:14
A good match:

http://www.waders.org/photos/washington/2002-03-24_16-34-02.html

JanJ
stuprice68
Monday 13th February 2006, 13:48
It looks like a Glaucous Winged Gull to my eyes (though the primaries look a bit dark).

Easy mistake to make with Gulls in this part of the world. They're pretty tricky (as indeed they are in the UK and everywhere I guess). You're doing better than I am! In spring there are lots of really pale 1st/2nd year Slatybacked Gulls that are really confusing. And in autumn/early winter there are lots of odd adult "Herring" type gulls too. I'm sure I had Thayers a couple of months ago and there are others that seem intermediate between Slaty Backed and Herring (or Vega-are you counting that as a separates species?).

Note to self:I need to sort out some of these Gulls.