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Gull (1 Viewer)

:eek!: wow, jono, did you have that greater black headed in england!?? there's no doubt about and it's not at all odd for such. looks like a 2nd winter bird. where and when?! great. i love that species.
 
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Hi Lou,
Unfortunately not, there would be a mega twitch if one turned up. I was birding in Poland during April (West Pomerania) and heard about this from a cracking good website www.clanga.com. Would love to have seen one but had to do with brilliant caspian terns. I am correct in thinking that Great black headed is the same as Pallas gull?
Another photo of this bird, plus recent rarities in Poland to be found at http://www.clanga.com/en/galerie/en_index.php?uklad=tab&kat1=5&kat2=Time&aut=Author&fraza=
 
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Wow indeed, I started already looking at another brown job in the left centre,
Yes indeed they have been called pallasses. We were able to see these birds and identify them about 8 km!! away over the Red sea. Very distinctive.
The head on this bird is distinctive : long bicoloured, black tipped bill, long sloping forehead, earphones on and even a eyering visible
 
btw. we're waiting for the first breeding record in romanian dobrogea. once (70-s) a rare bird, now it is seen on a regular basis with many sightings in breeding time and i think they breed in the northern/ukrainean part of the danube delta already. according to olsen, an immense increase of BP occured in ukraine (1954 = 145 p --> 2001 = 1500 p), don't know how the situation is nowadays. it's one of these saline steppe birds with a big fluctuation in numbers, maybe due to habitat change in innerasiatic parts of its breeding range (desertification?).
 
JANJ said:
Also think this looks like a Caspian, head and bill structure/shape surely fits. However, greater coverts and tertial pattern, meaning the pale edge reaching the greater coverts, which it usually don´t in Caspian, Yellow-legged and LBBG, but there are exceptions. If correct in image, the white seemingly rather unmarked head is not bad for YLG, in Turkey this time of year. Yhe pattern on the edges of the scapularst doesn´t look typical for Caspian, (have seen some ),but it doe´s sometimes for YLG:
I´d say nothing for sure for the time being, inspite of the Caspian like head.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~daarruud/michahellis1u.html

http://www.helsinki.fi/~rauste/tre2004/html/C_IMG_43177.html

http://www.helsinki.fi/~rauste/tre2004/html/C_IMG_41765.html

http://www.helsinki.fi/~rauste/tre2004/html/C_IMG_45130.html

http://www.bongariliitto.fi/kuvat/11_Rantalinnut/11h_Lokit/larcac_20040803_tamper_rauvi/IMG_5113.jpg

http://www.bongariliitto.fi/kuvat/11_Rantalinnut/11h_Lokit/larcac_20040809_lahti_kuhpe/998P_a.jpg

JanJ[/QUOTE

I'm also in Turkey. Is this also an immature Caspian? I didn't see quite the spotting on the undertail coverts on Bob's bird as this one, but then his bird looked at little wet and ruffled there, so hard to tell. I have a couple of shots in flight, but they are not too good. In flight, this bird has a white rump, a dark band across the tail with a white edge on the end of the tail. I'd love to know what I'm seeing here. Seems I'm always in a new country without a field guide! DOH! Even if I had one, it may not do me much good as far as gulls are concerned. They're so confusing with all those changes. Hope you can tell me what this guy is.
 

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Back to Turkish gull, and as mentioned above, colour is a bit on the blackish-white side, perhaps due to strong sunlight/exposure. But what´s with that tail? Can´t get a hold of the pattern.

JanJ
 
Lousy flight shots

JANJ said:
Back to Turkish gull, and as mentioned above, colour is a bit on the blackish-white side, perhaps due to strong sunlight/exposure. But what´s with that tail? Can´t get a hold of the pattern.

JanJ
Jan, the bird in real life seems brownish to me. I am posting some photos of the bird in flight. Sorry they are so bad. They were shot at a distance and and badly cropped, etc.; but they do show more of the bird.
 

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hi peregrinator,

your birds are definitely juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls (Larus michahellis), that is the common breeder on turkish coasts. hold on one moment i'll tell you why. among the relevant features are: smudge around eye, bulbous tip of bill which isn't as long as typical caspian. in flight is has almost no primary "window" (lighter inner primes) and from underside quite darkish looking. the remote other 'possibility' would be the rare armenian gull, but that one usually has a much neater, rounder head.

all the best, - where are you exactly in turkey, pereg.?
 
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JANJ said:
Back to Turkish gull, and as mentioned above, colour is a bit on the blackish-white side, perhaps due to strong sunlight/exposure. But what´s with that tail? Can´t get a hold of the pattern.

JanJ

the only thing i can see on the undertail of the "black and white" one, bob's caspian type juvenile, is that they seem to be whitish, little patterned - which would be also in favour of cachinnans.

BOB, DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER PIC OF YOUR BIRD???
 
lou salomon said:
hi peregrinator,

your birds are definitely juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls (Larus michahellis), that is the common breeder on turkish coasts. hold on one moment i'll tell you why. among the relevant features are: smudge around eye, bulbous tip of bill which isn't as long as typical caspian. in flight is has almost no primary "window" (lighter inner primes) and from underside quite darkish looking. the remote other 'possibility' would be the rare armenian gull, but that one usually has a much neater, rounder head.

all the best, - where are you exactly in turkey, pereg.?

Thanks Lou and Jan. YLG is as new to me as a Caspian would be. I'm happy and lucky to see either, and luckier still to be able to ask someone else what it is! ;)
Lou--I am in Marmaris now. In a few days, we plan to sail Peregrine to a few coves close-by. I need to escape the busyness for awhile. We plan to anchor off Ekincik and take the Koycegiz River (Dalyan)up to the ancient city of Caunos. My chart guide says the river is marshy and reed lined and that there are herons, sandpipers, kingfishers, and hawks in the area. I'm sure there is more as this is a sailing chart guide and not a bird guide. I will have to take photos and write good notes, as I don't have a field guide and most of what I see will be new to me. I understand that this is not the 'right' season for birding here, but hopefully, I'll see something. Already have, a YLG! Thanks again.
 
Evening all,
Just about to go along to my local patch. Little breeze this evening may cause a movement of hirundines. Good luck on the boat Peregrinator. Reckon you'll still get a load of birds in and around the reedbeds.
Attached one last gull photo. Not for diessection of reasons as to what it is, (as you can see). Just thought it was a rarity.
Jono
 

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lou salomon said:
hi,

a gull. infos about location later. what do you make of it?

I have only just seen this thread, and havn't read it all (thus somebody may have already covered this issue), but the majority of Caspian Gulls will have a dark iris - for me, I don't think the original picture is off a Caspian Gull - certainly not like any I have ever seen, plus the head shape is generally wrong, and that bill structure can be found on Herring Gulls.

Mark
 
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