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Skua, northeast Scotland (1 Viewer)

Andrew Whitehouse

Professor of Listening
Supporter
Scotland
Juvenile skuas: they're a bit tricky. So earlier today I was seawatching from Girdle Ness in Aberdeenshire and a dark juvenile skua flew through close enough for me to get some shots. These are not particularly great photos, but show various features. I've some thoughts on what it might be but would be interested to know how others see it. All shots are of the same bird.
 

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Second vote for Dark morph Arctic Skua.

Central tail spike is visible in your shot. very well caught as I'd of had no hope!
 
Arctic for me, too. As well as tail features photo 2 shows a grey neck which I usually associate with juv dark morph arctics.
regards,
Jono
 
Thanks folks - Arctic Skua was what I was thinking too. One of the reasons I asked was because around this time of year it always seems that Poms start to outnumber Arctics on a lot of seawatching counts from the North Sea. I often worry about this because, although I start seeing more Poms at this time of year, I still seem to see more skuas that I think are Arctics.
 
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