[Cristian Mihai]

Herastrau, March 7th. The aggressor is a 2cy cachinnans, but what's your opinion about the aggressed bird?

[lou salomon]

looks like another male cach. pale armpits, two additional thin bars in tail.

[Cristian Mihai]

Some wings - March 6th 2012

[jamesevry]

Thanks for the paper Lou, v. interesting stuff - think I will print it out for them!

[Cristian Mihai]

A strange right wing (first 4 pics, in the 5th pic an usual adult bird) - Herastrau, March 11th.

[lou salomon]

never seen such an extreme assymetry plus the first (for me) documented thayeri pattern in a non-adult cach. quite sure its right wing has been seriously damaged and primaries have been replaced. p9 is missing. but even p6-p8 seem to have been replaced: they have large apical spots now and look much fresher than those in left wing! interesting bird - shows that such ind. could survive their damage. or was the loss of 3rd gen. outer primaries the result of internal (hormonal/metabolical) problems? but only in one wing - unlikely?

[Cristian Mihai]

Some more pics taken on March 11th in Herastrau. In pics 3 and 4 the same bird with a very low level of pigments.

[Cristian Mihai]

Herastrau - March 11th 2012

[lou salomon]

superbe action shots, cristian. and shows well some of the fight tactics and aggressive menacing behaviour in pontic gull. the ylg in pic 3 ducks and thinks its part...

[Cristian Mihai]

Back to February 21st (Herastrau).

[Cristian Mihai]

Three more pics taken on February 21st.

[lou salomon]

no 4 in #2385 has the boldest scap pattern i ever saw in a caspian - if it is a (pure) caspian - but with that bill? cheers!

[Cristian Mihai]

Another shot with bird 4 from post #2385.

[lou salomon]

thanks for that - it seems to be a caspian allright!

[Cristian Mihai]

On March 17th and 18th I visited Comana Natural Park - probably it was my last opportunity to see Common Gulls this spring. I also saw some Yellow-legged Gulls and Black-headed Gulls. Here is really hot for March (with maximum temperatures around 20 degrees Celsius!).

[snowcap]

Hi folks, a good movement of large Gulls is going on in NW England at the moment and scrutiny today produced a 1stw Caspian Gull ( poor record shot attached).Also today the 3rdw Kumliens from a few weeks back reappeared.An interesting looking juv Gull caught my eye ( see pic), very uniform wash on the underparts and nice chevrons in the primaries.The primaries had a good venetian blind effect in flight and a very pale underside to the primaries was eyecatching.The tail was concolourous with the upperparts, not having a tail band as such , all dark essentially.A hybrid maybe?

[tittletattler]

Originally Posted by snowcap

Hi folks, a good movement of large Gulls is going on in NW England at the moment and scrutiny today produced a 1stw Caspian Gull ( poor record shot attached).Also today the 3rdw Kumliens from a few weeks back reappeared.An interesting looking juv Gull caught my eye ( see pic), very uniform wash on the underparts and nice chevrons in the primaries.The primaries had a good venetian blind effect in flight and a very pale underside to the primaries was eyecatching.The tail was concolourous with the upperparts, not having a tail band as such , all dark essentially.A hybrid maybe?
Attachment 376591

Attachment 376592

Hi Pete,

The juv gull is a fair old size; as big as the Herrings. If it was smaller and sleaker I'd be checking it out for Kumlien's/Thayer's. Is it a pale Herring? Could well be a hybrid but what would the parents be?

Cheers,

Andy

[tittletattler]

Hi all,

Had a few gulls down this way too. We have not had an Iceland Gull in Dartford for 25 years and yet so far this winter we've had three.

This bird appears to be a 4th winter and could possibly be a Kumliens:

http://www.kentos.org.uk/gallery/mai...geViewsIndex=1

Here it is across the river at Pitsea:

http://www.birdersplayground.co.uk/Recent%20Images.html

Also had an adult Iceland:

http://www.kentos.org.uk/gallery/mai...g2_itemId=4171

Same bird here:

http://www.birdersplayground.co.uk/R...ges.html#Adult Iceland 2012

And a 2nd winter:

http://www.kentos.org.uk/gallery/mai...geViewsIndex=1

4 Caspians this winter and all 1st winters. Found this bird this morning:

http://www.kentos.org.uk/gallery/mai...g2_itemId=4252

The above bird appears to have only a few, already bleached, 2nd generation outer greater coverts whislt many of the scapulars are 3rd generation, I think? So technically a '1st summer'.

This 1st summer was seen in April last year and shows how quickly they can become bleached at this time of year:

this bird came to bread two weeks back:

http://www.kentos.org.uk/gallery/mai...geViewsIndex=1

Quite strongly marked scapulars with what appears to be 2-3 3rd generation lower scapulars?

I took this shot with just my compact camera and it shows how pale the underwing was and also the prominent pale inner primaries:

http://www.kentos.org.uk/gallery/mai...g2_itemId=4174

The other two:

http://www.kentos.org.uk/gallery/mai...g2_itemId=3612

http://www.kentos.org.uk/gallery/mai...g2_itemId=3450

Cheers,

Andy.

[snowcap]

Hi Andy, its certainly a puzzling bird.The head and bill are very Iceland like, especially the small dark bill.Of course the tertials are all wrong for Thayers and the bird generally is surely too dark for Kumlien`s despite the vast amount of variation found with them.It reminded me of some of the weird hybrid Gulls I`ve seen in California.The seemingly all dark tail was strange too and the paleness of the underwing was really eyecatching.All part of the joys of Gulling!

[tittletattler]

Originally Posted by snowcap

Hi Andy, its certainly a puzzling bird.The head and bill are very Iceland like, especially the small dark bill.Of course the tertials are all wrong for Thayers and the bird generally is surely too dark for Kumlien`s despite the vast amount of variation found with them.It reminded me of some of the weird hybrid Gulls I`ve seen in California.The seemingly all dark tail was strange too and the paleness of the underwing was really eyecatching.All part of the joys of Gulling!

Hi Pete,

Is there anything else it could be? I would have to confess to being slightly ignorant to all the possible juv types that could get here from the Western seaboard.

Cheers, Andy.

[tittletattler]

Originally Posted by snowcap

There was however a classic Smithsonianus here a few days ago ( see pic), just for 30 mins, it was a stonker in flight, ticked all the right boxes!.I `ve looked for it since but no joy...it`s out there somewhere!
Attachment 376660

That's one box that, for me, is still unticked. Surely due a twitchable one soon?

[snowcap]

Well, they are out there, but dark argies etc are the pitfall and of course there are only a handful of people actively looking for them and they are difficult to prove even with pics!
I think there have been( just about) twitchable ones in Cornwall and Dorset?/Devon away from the easier Irish ones, but you are right, a fully twitchable , undisputed Smiths overhere is overdue.

[lou salomon]

if you're haunting thayer's gull this is really worth reading and looking at, pete: http://www.talk.gull-research.org/vi...php?f=13&t=753

[snowcap]

Thanks Lou, interesting stuff.Must admit though that the more I read about Thayers the more perplexed I become!

[tittletattler]

managed another Caspian today locally.

See here:

http://www.kentos.org.uk/gallery/mai...geViewsIndex=1

Cheers, Andy.