John Cantelo
Well-known member
Your wish is my command ....
I'd make some general points regarding the coverage of gulls and more generally. The crisper, brighter printing as made it easier to see details on original photos and a number of better photos have replaced the less helpful ones. Beside the birds dates are given either to indicate when the photo was taken (or perhaps when the plumage might be seen). As already noted a symbol has been added to show years to maturity. the moult sequence double page has been redesigned for the better. The sequence used is, I feel, more intuitive.
Black-headed Gull
- neither of the at-rest first-winters are very representative, being quite faded unlike typical midwinter birds with much more prominent dark markings
- no change in photos
- the patchy-hooded bird is labelled as a first-summer, which I'm sure it is, but moulting adults look like this too (making it a "false friend")
- no change
- Flight shot of the adult summer bird shows heavy shade on the underwing - surely a better photo of one of Britain's most common species could be found? (similar issues with adult Little Gull and first-summer Sabine’s Gull on p117, Lesser Black-backed Gull on p119)
- no change but I’d argue these features in the original were reasonably both on the main plate & on the small gulls in flight reference page (and assisted by better printing)
- there is no photo of a late summer adult moulting its outer primaries, showing that distinctive double black dot on the leading edge of the wing, which catches out novice birders who think it must be something unusual
- there’s a new photo of an adult in heavy moult in flight on page of moult in gulls but I’m not sure that it shows the feature to which you refer.
Mediterranean Gull
- No first-summer or second-summer shown
- no change in photos
- Both flight shots of first-winters taken in poor light (cf much better photo in Crossley)
- no change in photos on main page but new & better one on the small gulls in flight reference page
- All three flight-shots of adults have quite stretched wings – why not one with less stretched wings showing the Barn Owl-like rounded wingtip that is so different from any pose a Black-headed Gull is ever seen in
- no change in photos
Kittiwake
- No first-summer
- photo of first summer in flight added plus wing of 2nd winter & head of first winter added
- Adult summer doesn’t show the contrast between mid-grey of mantle/innerwing and paler grey of primaries well
- better printing of same photo on main page makes this feature more obvious as does a new photo on on the small gulls in flight reference page
- No photo showing just how distinctively translucent white the primaries of adults are when viewed from below
- not shown
Little Gull
- No first-summer or second-winter
- not shown
- No size comparison against Black-headed Gull
- in both editions the small gulls in flight reference page shows the size difference (although not so well in the new edition as they’re not close together)
Bonaparte’s Gull
- No at-rest first-winter or adult winter
- no change
Common Gull
- Only one very young juvenile; older juvenile, which can be confusingly similar to juvenile Med Gulls on the deck, not shown
- no change
- Only one at-rest first-winter when this is this species’ most variable plumage
- no change
- No first-summer
- no change
Ring-billed Gull
- Only one at-rest first-winter when this is this species’ most variable plumage
- no change
Lesser Black-backed Gull / Herring Gull
- The juvenile gulls on p121 and p127 captioned as Lesser Black-backed Gull are far from classic individuals (I wouldn’t be happy ruling out Herring gull on these two until I saw them fly – would anyone else? If so, what features am I missing that gives you that confidence?). If the purpose is to warn beginners off from making uncautious identifications of juvenile gulls, then that’s admirable, but a majority of individual Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls in these plumages are readily identifiable at rest and it would have been good to show these as well (Ok, there is a juvenile Herring, but it’s in a pose that fails to highlight its most useful ID features, and I can’t find any photos of birds anywhere in the book that look like the typical juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls that are plentiful at this time of the year at the weir five minutes way from my house).
- there’s new photo replacing the one originally shown p121 although I can’t say it meets your exacting standards I think it’s better (as is the flight shot opposite)
- No hybrid Herring x Lesser Black-backed Gulls shown
- No hybrid Glaucous x Herring
- neither covered in the new version
Iceland Gull / Glaucous Gull
- No at-rest adult Glaucous without head-streaking, and no at-rest Iceland with – another “false friend”
- neither covered in the new version; Iceland Gull photos unchanged but three of the Glaucous Gull photos are new – these cover ‘adult non-breeding’ (replacing ‘adult winter’), ‘second winter’ and third summer replacing one of third winter
- Repeated reference to Iceland and Glaucous Gulls in “first-winter”, which is now generally accepted as an anachronistic terms for this pair
- now refered to as ‘juvenile/first winter’ birds
Great Black-backed Gull
- No at-rest first-winter
- no change in photos but the ‘juvenile ‘ of the original in now called ‘first winter’
Yellow-legged Gull
- Just one at-rest first-winter and no at-rest juvenile
- all photos the same except ‘adult summer’ replaced by new photo labelled ‘adult breeding’
- No variation in adult appearance shown
- see above
- No at-rest older immature birds shown
- see above
Caspian Gull
- No at-rest older immature birds shown
- new photos of adult, flying third winter & flying adult but no additional at rest photos
I fear that a laridophile like yourself will be disappointed but for a pedestrian birder like me I think book manages a good balance between useful coverage and the constraints of producing a book that is remotely portable. I think that the only way to attain the sort of coverage you'd like would only be possible if the book was a lot larger or ultra-rarities were excluded (which I think would disappoint far more.
I hope this helps. Over the next few days I hope to go over the thread on the original edition and check the new version against the errors/concerns raised.
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