gulls (2 Viewers)

[lou salomon]

all michahellis pics from mamaia done. http://lou.bertalan.de/birds/
not very many. i have much more cachinnans pics but mostly adults.

 

[lou salomon]

frumoasa poza, cristian. anything not right with this bird? smallish p9 mirror and little black in general but otherwise a good ad michahellis.

 

[lou salomon]

first set of sfantu gheorghe caspian gulls on http://lou.bertalan.de/birds/ many more will follow.

 

[Cristian Mihai]

frumoasa poza, cristian. anything not right with this bird? smallish p9 mirror and little black in general but otherwise a good ad michahellis.

Yes the p9 mirror looks small (or the p10 mirror is somehow larger...). Today, May 16th, I took some better pics with gulls in the same area in Herastrau.

 

[Cristian Mihai]

more pics...

 

[lou salomon]

well, it seems that some of your bucharest michahellis somehow show more similarity to caspian gull than most ind. i saw in constanta.

 

[Cristian Mihai]

well, it seems that some of your bucharest michahellis somehow show more similarity to caspian gull than most ind. i saw in constanta.

Yep, that's the point.

 

[lou salomon]

adult alternate caspian gallery

http://www.lou.bertalan.de/birds/index.php , then klick "cachinnans adult alternate (january-june)" - can't link it directly, don't know why.

see latest 47 pics. it was on 1 day in sf. gheorghe when i took pics in the early morning at noon and in the evening, light making legs look more yellow than they were; also, the uploaded pics in the gallery do not reflect the exact colours, shades and detail than in the original files - i'll still have to find the method to optimize that. orbital ring in most adult birds appears red indeed in the original RAWs; JPGs are lighter and more yellow, and finally on the website the orbital disappears or appears orange. sorry for that. nonetheless i guess some are just nice to watch :bounce: :bounce:

edit: 18.05. finished uploading the selected romanian pics.

 

[lou salomon]

hi cristian,

this pic from vama veche shows a - what i think - michahellis with a similarly extended underwing p10 tongue and a large p9 mirror - well, more extended on outer web. (by joszef szabo junior), june last year.

edit: i see that good underwing shots of adult michahellis are scarce in the collection - some close flight shots, of both under and upperparts would be most welcome... not that i urge you to haste for them....!

all the best

 

[Cristian Mihai]

No problem Lou. In the next days I will try to take some pics with flying adults michahellis.

P.S. BTW, great action pic in the post above.

 

[lou salomon]

P.S. BTW, great action pic in the post above.

indeed! best seen at maximum size...

 

[lou salomon]

75 pics, from A - Z: one adult caspian gull for each letter (including a slightly leucistic ind.) from 9.05.2009, sfantu gheorghe, mouth of danube into the black sea, here:

http://lou.bertalan.de/birds/ click on gallery: cachinnans adult alternate (january-june)

 

[Howard King]

Hello again after a short break - have been away on and off - sadly all or rather nearly all our large Gulls have flown north - but the odd one or two still remain young birds all but difficult to get pics of - this one was no exception today - full zoom 500mm lens largest image and max crop = dispite the Hugh bill can't ID it help thus required Thanks

 

[jamesevry]

Just got back from a trip to the danube delta, and wanted to mention that I saw 3(!) great black-headed gulls at the plopul salt lake on tuesday the 26th may. 1 adult, 1 2nd summer, and one first summer. Then immediatly after at lake saraturii I saw another adult/2nd summer bird, possibly different from the previous 3 (plus the breeding gulls and little gulls). Also I saw 1 adult flying over the northern part of razim lake on sunday the 24th may, maybe a different bird from the on at plopul/saraturii? Finally a immature slender-billed gull at vadu on the 25th and lesser black backed on the beach with yellow-legged/caspian gulls, and med gulls. Pretty amazing stuff, and some pics to add in a couple of days...

 

[lou salomon]

hi howard,

looks like a 'nasty' bleached 2cy heuglini to my guts, darker mantled than cachinnans which also can have such monstrous bills (even more though). but how to exclude a barabensis? usually different stance and jizz but single ind. can acieve the proportions of a sister sp.; good to have some gulls from down there, howard, and nice to see yuo back here.

hi james,
also just back from romania, and now, croatia (kvarn bay, northern dalmatia) with many pix of cachinnans and now some michahellis,

in romania we visited pretty much the same places like you so i can tell - yeah, good region to bird, both plopul & saraturi and vadu. unfortunately we had no slender-billed this time but 3 sightings of 4 adult GBHG, one pair smimming not further than 10 m from our danube passenger boat. and a 2cy baltic at mamaia, but baltic is pretty regular both inland and at the coast. no paler backed lesser black back, james?

i'm really looking for some of your pix!
see some of mine there: http://lou.bertalan.de/birds/
if there's any relevant pics you have and i'm sure there will be, i'll load it up there too with your allowance

by the way, she (greater black backed) used to be a rarity in the 50-80s and got now really an expected species on any trip to northern dobrogea and the delta. it is breeding in the northern (ukrainian) part of the delta now and is a regular sighting at murighiool/plopul, also at razim lake in winter.

att. a few shots of the few nice YLG individuals from mali losinj

cheers to you
and all

 

[lou salomon]

few more from mali losinj

6. same individual as 1. and 3. see extent of black/size of white tongue on underside of p10.

2. an ind. with p10 mirror only

3. same 3cy as in previous post

4. and 5. a 2cy with growing blackish scaps and coverts

 

[lou salomon]

and a few more.

edit: some larophile discussion about these shots. variation in the primary pattern of michahellis is evident:

the adult with it's right wing tip damaged = pics 1,3,6: black parts are slightly reduced: p5 subterminal mark is narrow on inner web, p10 has just a small subterminal mark on outer web, p9 and 10 have grey bases and p9 mirror is rel. large for YLG. in pic 3 and 6 probably the same individual. in the right wing p8 and p9 have broken tips, in pic 6 one can see the difference to e.g. caspian gull (which can have quite a similar upperwing primary pattern) having much shorter white tongues.

the 3cy (pics 4,5,8) in many respects is retarded: it has an unusually large black mark on bill (some 3cy in spring already have adult like bills), iris isn't as pale as in most 3cy, leg colour is of a dull pale yellow. it was a large lanky bird with a weak gonys angle.

the 2cy (pics 9 and 10) bird shows a stage between the typical 1st winter and the typical 1st summer with mostly used coverts (slightly retarded compared to most spring 2cy) and some growing scapulars with solid dark brown/black centers.

primary moult in the flying 2cy (pic11): p1-2 are new 2nd generation, p3-4 are lacking (shed), p5-10 old juvenile primaries. see next post for another 2cy with greyish mantle!

in pic 13 there are some strange misplaced conical 'sub-subterminal' marks on each side of p10 mirror (right wing).

pic 14: in this turning bird the 6 pale tongues are nicely displayed. note lack of p9 mirror in this adult.

pic 15: adult with no p9 mirror and p1-2 shed due to moult. note broken p5 mark.

 

[Cristian Mihai]

Some pics with an adult YL Gull (taken on June 6th). Unfortunately I took these pics in the evening, in a poor light. Sorry for the quality.

 

[Cristian Mihai]

Also some shots with adult and 3cy birds.

 

[lou salomon]

hi cristian,

see my mail.

B