Dean Nicholson
Cloacal Protuberant.
.......without a ring!
Present in the Bellmoor Lake roost since Oct 20th when first found by Paul Hobson.
Not only in terms of overall appearance but also the primary moult stage of p1-p3 renewed, new p4 not quite fully grown and p5-p10 old is highly indicative of fuscus by this date..... lots of intermedius present (several ringed) at this site as well as Spalford at the moment but none matching the appearance of this bird, there are a few dark (black) ones, a couple of white heads still but i can't find a single one with old visible primaries still (on the closed wing).
I always look for adult LBB's in October with the 'magic 3' combo of black mantle, white head and late primary moult and this bird shows all 3, with a couple of bonus points for small and wingy structure and nice mahogany tones to the mantle (when seen in bright sunlight). A stunning looking gull.
I still maintain that fuscus (especially from the NW Norway colonies where we now have several good (and a couple of not so good!) ringing records) pass through Britain on a fairly regular basis every spring and autumn....but because of BBRC's (in my opinion) over-cautious approach of 'no ring-no good' of all but 2cy birds with correct primary moult, the true figures are being grossly diluted...I also believe that many of those frosty looking wingy juveniles that appear in late summer are fuscus too, i can't prove it of course but they do nothing at all wrong in the looks department.
Surely strong candidate adults with none incriminating moult could be accepted couldn't they? it really does seem like throwing the baby out with the bathwater just because there is the remote possibility of a late moulting Northern intermedius looking similar, when in reality it would be more difficult to find an intermedius by the end of October which hasn't yet reached p5 in primary moult than it would be a kosher fuscus?!
I don't mean go the other way either and start accepting every black mantled or long winged LBB but if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.....:t:
At present the current acceptance criteria skews the records and suggests that fuscus is much rarer than it actually is....
Comments welcome
Cheers
Dean
Present in the Bellmoor Lake roost since Oct 20th when first found by Paul Hobson.
Not only in terms of overall appearance but also the primary moult stage of p1-p3 renewed, new p4 not quite fully grown and p5-p10 old is highly indicative of fuscus by this date..... lots of intermedius present (several ringed) at this site as well as Spalford at the moment but none matching the appearance of this bird, there are a few dark (black) ones, a couple of white heads still but i can't find a single one with old visible primaries still (on the closed wing).
I always look for adult LBB's in October with the 'magic 3' combo of black mantle, white head and late primary moult and this bird shows all 3, with a couple of bonus points for small and wingy structure and nice mahogany tones to the mantle (when seen in bright sunlight). A stunning looking gull.
I still maintain that fuscus (especially from the NW Norway colonies where we now have several good (and a couple of not so good!) ringing records) pass through Britain on a fairly regular basis every spring and autumn....but because of BBRC's (in my opinion) over-cautious approach of 'no ring-no good' of all but 2cy birds with correct primary moult, the true figures are being grossly diluted...I also believe that many of those frosty looking wingy juveniles that appear in late summer are fuscus too, i can't prove it of course but they do nothing at all wrong in the looks department.
Surely strong candidate adults with none incriminating moult could be accepted couldn't they? it really does seem like throwing the baby out with the bathwater just because there is the remote possibility of a late moulting Northern intermedius looking similar, when in reality it would be more difficult to find an intermedius by the end of October which hasn't yet reached p5 in primary moult than it would be a kosher fuscus?!
I don't mean go the other way either and start accepting every black mantled or long winged LBB but if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.....:t:
At present the current acceptance criteria skews the records and suggests that fuscus is much rarer than it actually is....
Comments welcome
Cheers
Dean