Ice edge north of Svalbard in late June (1 Viewer)

Aladdin · Sep 5, 2020

Dear members and bird watchers!

Picture #1 is a, well, I have given up trying to ID the bird. Anyone able to ID this bird, most likely a juvenile

Picture #2 is a group of birds feeding on a Narwhal together with polar bears. I can see Glaucous Gulls (Thanks to Nutcracker and CARERY) for help with ID. There is also Ivory Gulls.

But the grey bird is unknown for me. Is it possible to ID this bird from the poor picture.

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin

Deb Burhinus · Sep 5, 2020

#1 Northern Fulmar
#2 Ivory Gull in foreground

Aladdin · Sep 5, 2020

Deb Burhinus said:
#1 Northern Fulmar
#2 Ivory Gull in foreground

Thank you very much!

I was thinking about the small grey bird on picture #2. In front of the Ivory Gull and the Glaucous Gulls

Kind regards
Aladdin

birdmeister · Sep 5, 2020

I don't see any birds in front of the Ivory Gull, but the gray ones that aren't Glaucous are more fulmars.

Aladdin · Sep 5, 2020

birdmeister said:
I don't see any birds in front of the Ivory Gull, but the gray ones that aren't Glaucous are more fulmars.

Thank you!

OK, now I get it, there are only Ivory and Glaucous gulls together with the fulmars.

Thank you very much!!

Kind regards
Aladdin

Deb Burhinus · Sep 5, 2020

Aladdin said:
OK, now I get it, there are only Ivory and Glaucous gulls together with the fulmars.

Aladdin

The Fulmars are dark phase (‘Blue Fulmars’) I think - at least much darker than more southern populations so perhaps that might be a source of confusion.

RafaelMatias · Sep 5, 2020

There's a friggin' POLAR BEAR there!!! :eek!::eek!: Who cares about the birds!

PS: agree with others: #1 Fulmar, #2: Fulmars, Ivory Gull and Glaucous G. :t:
And congrats on the bear! B

Deb Burhinus · Sep 5, 2020

RafaelMatias said:
There's a friggin' POLAR BEAR there!!! :eek!::eek!: Who cares about the birds!

3

Aladdin · Sep 5, 2020

RafaelMatias said:
There's a friggin' POLAR BEAR there!!! :eek!::eek!: Who cares about the birds!

PS: agree with others: #1 Fulmar, #2: Fulmars, Ivory Gull and Glaucous G. :t:
And congrats on the bear! B

Thank you all for the help. The bird with the bear looks lighter than the birds in the second picture.

Thank all of you again. Now I will prepare a post with 2 that might turn out to be 3 different species from Greenland

Happy birding and kind regards
Aladdin

jurek · Sep 5, 2020

RafaelMatias said:
There's a friggin' POLAR BEAR there!!!

Where is the bear? In relation to the Ivory Gull? 3

dantheman · Sep 5, 2020

Aladdin said:
Thank you all for the help. The bird with the bear looks lighter than the birds in the second picture.

If you look at your second pic you will see some variation in Fulmar colour there - they do vary (there is also a classification system that can be used from Double Dark and down, sorry don't have a link).

alanc · Sep 5, 2020

Its not a Polar Bear. Its the very rare Black Nosed, White Phase, Northern Albatross3

Aladdin · Sep 5, 2020

jurek said:
Where is the bear? In relation to the Ivory Gull? 3

Sorry! The bear is just under the Ivory Gull

Cheers!

Aladdin · Sep 5, 2020

dantheman said:
If you look at your second pic you will see some variation in Fulmar colour there - they do vary (there is also a classification system that can be used from Double Dark and down, sorry don't have a link).

Thanks!

There was a huge group of birds, but too far away for any decent pictures. Really would have loved to come closer to study the different birds.

Study my "SVENSSON" and the Northern Fulmar is not in the book, only Fulmar. But I guess it is the same. They mention the Dark Phase (BLUE Fulmar) and the light as Deb Burhinus mentioned.

When I read Deb Burhinus informative post I understood duck all. But now it is clearing up. I gyess the phase is the same as morph, dark and light.

They were feeding from a Narwal.

The ice was all red and they only reason I know it was a Narwal was because of the spear sticking up

Kind regards
Aladdin

Aladdin · Sep 5, 2020

RafaelMatias said:
There's a friggin' POLAR BEAR there!!! :eek!::eek!: Who cares about the birds!

PS: agree with others: #1 Fulmar, #2: Fulmars, Ivory Gull and Glaucous G. :t:
And congrats on the bear! B

Cheers!

Yes, the bear added some excitement to the bird watching.

Thank you!
Kind regards
Aladdin

Andy Adcock · Sep 5, 2020

Aladdin said:
Sorry! The bear is just under the Ivory Gull

Cheers!

Ken would have found something 'odd' about it for us to debate if it were his shot

How would you fancy this on your garden feeder Ken!

Aladdin · Sep 5, 2020

birdmeister said:
I don't see any birds in front of the Ivory Gull, but the gray ones that aren't Glaucous are more fulmars.

Cheers!

Sorry for that. My mistake! Behind the Gull, I must have been confusing myself.

Kind regards
Aladdin

Deb Burhinus · Sep 5, 2020

Aladdin said:
Thanks!

Study my "SVENSSON" and the Northern Fulmar is not in the book, only Fulmar. But I guess it is the same. They mention the Dark Phase (BLUE Fulmar) and the light as Deb Burhinus mentioned ...

When I read Deb Burhinus informative post I understood duck all. But now it is clearing up. I gyess the phase is the same as morph, dark and light
Aladdin

This is correct - there are several sub-species of Fulmar (more properly known as ‘Northern Fulmar’) the majority in the arctic being the nominate F. g. glacialis which tend to be the darker race although there’s no morph selective breeding afaik so I think you’d get indeterminate colour morphs also.

This abstract may clarify what you noted in the field ( ‘coloured’ here referring to dark birds ...)

https://www.researchgate.net/public...ar_Fulmarus_glacialis_on_Bear_Island_Svalbard

Deb Burhinus · Sep 5, 2020

andyadcock said:
How would you fancy this on your garden feeder Ken!

Recent view from the patio window

https://i.redd.it/jptkk2huyc511.jpg

Aladdin · Sep 5, 2020

Deb Burhinus said:
This is correct - there are several sub-species of Fulmar (more properly known as ‘Northern Fulmar’) the majority in the arctic being the nominate F. g. glacialis which tend to be the darker race although there’s no morph selective breeding afaik so I think you’d get indeterminate colour morphs also.

This abstract may clarify what you noted in the field ( ‘coloured’ here referring to dark birds ...)

https://www.researchgate.net/public...ar_Fulmarus_glacialis_on_Bear_Island_Svalbard

WOW!
Cheers, down loaded the pdf and it will make great Saturday night reading

Thanks!

Kind regards with wishes for a nice Saturday evening
Aladdin

Ice edge north of Svalbard in late June (1 Viewer)

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