gulls (12 Viewers)

[Cristian Mihai]

Post #1478:
YLG, YLG, Caspian Gull, Caspian Gull, YLG

 

[ekopa]

Post #1478:
YLG, YLG, Caspian Gull, Caspian Gull, YLG

yeah. I can see why the 1st two may be YLG - p4 black band, amount of black on p5-10, heavy bill with consipcous gonys... then 2111 can be YL as well...

 

[Cristian Mihai]

July 20th. Dambovita river, near Bucharest.

 

[lou salomon]

hi alexandr,

i see it just as the opposite to cristian's IDs:

your 10 pics:

1 & 2 are adult caspians.
3 & 4 looks like a 3cy YLG - albeit one with a tremendous long bill!
5 - slightly irritating with such bright bare colours (legs, iris, large gonys patch) but still a caspian on bill shape, probably a male. i'd have liked to see it's primary pattern.
6 - 10 are adult caspians. where exactly did you take those pics in the delta? can i use 2-3 of the better ones for my website?

all the best,

 

[lou salomon]

July 20th. Dambovita river, near Bucharest.

cach.

 

[Cristian Mihai]

cach.

Obviously

 

[Cristian Mihai]

August 6th. Dambovita river, near Bucharest.

 

[lou salomon]

i'm starting to wonder if all adult caspian gulls summering in bucharest have pale irides...
moult score in the 20.07. adult: p4+5 shed, now at 6.08. there's p7 missing and p6 growing. 2 different ind. however.

as for the 2 youngsters the right one definitely is a mich (with an aberrant bill!) but for the left one i get a slight cach feeling... (broader tertial 'thumbnail', less contrasting coverts, less prominent pale fringes..) thanks for sharing cristian, do you have more pix with juveniles?

watch out, i'll do a 2nd tour this year from 31.8-9.9. in romania.

 

[Cristian Mihai]

Here are 2 more pics with the youngsters. I don't think that the left hand bird it's a Caspian.
Write me (e-mail or PM) more about your visit in Romania, maybe we'll find a way to join your team...

 

[Cristian Mihai]

More pics taken on August 6th.

 

[ekopa]

5 - slightly irritating with such bright bare colours (legs, iris, large gonys patch) but still a caspian on bill shape, probably a male. i'd have liked to see it's primary pattern.
6 - 10 are adult caspians. where exactly did you take those pics in the delta? can i use 2-3 of the better ones for my website?

all the best,

Hi Lou,

Could you explain a bit more why you think 5&8 are Caspians?

I don't remeber exactly where they were photographed. It was close to a village (Ukrainian?) that lies to the east from Maliuc (on the opposite bank of the channel) - looks like Gorgova.

Sure, you can use the photos you like

Thanks
Aleksey

 

[Morg]

Wow, I have just found this thread so will need a few weeks to read through it!!!

Here's a group of gulls taken in Edinburgh, Scotland, this week... Hoped there were three species here, but looks like just the two...

Also attached is the P10 of a herring gull taken today - how common is this on argenteus?

Geoff

 

[Cristian Mihai]

Some pics with 1cy and 2cy michahellis taken on August 12th.

 

[Cristian Mihai]

More pics...

 

[Cristian Mihai]

...and 3 more.

 

[Morg]

Any comments on the central bird?

Geoff

 

[Cristian Mihai]

The bluish gull...and...a 3cy micha?

 

[lou salomon]

yes, all michs, including one bathed in chemicals.
this one http://www.birdforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=277729&d=1281706536 (#1495) has an interesting tertial pattern that i have not found yet, not even here:
http://chrisgibbins-gullsbirds.blogspot.com/2010/08/1-cy-yellow-legged-gulls-larus.html. (sample of excellent pics from northeastern spain).

in visas compilation: - small similar white inserts like here are not uncommon though:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~rauste/g/data/pics/a//C_IMG_69394.jpg
and this: http://www.helsinki.fi/~rauste/g/data/pics/a//C_IMG_67180.jpg
and this: http://www.helsinki.fi/~rauste/g/data/pics/a//C_IMG_67211.jpg
ok, this almost matches it: http://www.helsinki.fi/~rauste/g/data/pics/a//C_IMG_67224.jpg

 

[lou salomon]

Wow, I have just found this thread so will need a few weeks to read through it!!!

Here's a group of gulls taken in Edinburgh, Scotland, this week... Hoped there were three species here, but looks like just the two...

Also attached is the P10 of a herring gull taken today - how common is this on argenteus?

Geoff

hi geoff,

sorry for the delayed answer. in the first 2 pics i see LBBGs and HGs.
that adult herring with a long ventral white tongue is interesting and i really don't have an idea how common that is in argenteus. i knew it mostly from northern breeders of ssp. argentatus which show the so called 'thayeri pattern' with reduced black - when mirror and tongue even merge. now i have found this: http://cyberbirding.uib.no/gull/hg/ad_13.php it says that many baltic birds show such a pattern (30% of latvian breeders, 10% in the gulf of finland).
this argenteus from holland has longish tongues but not as long as yours: http://waarneming.nl/fotonew/0/681570.jpg
unfortunately i have little experience with argenteus, but the guys from gull-research.org do. would you like to post this bird in the herring gull section here? : http://www.talk.gull-research.org/index.php with the special question how common such a long tongue is in argenteus? cause i guess it's a local HG indeed!

 

[Morg]

Thanks for the reply Lou. As a very small number of the birds that I have seen over the last couple of months in the SE of Scotland seem to have this pattern I wondered whether they could be southern argentatus (i.e. non dark mantled) that are summering here but typically breed elsewhere - maybe towards the Baltic. Or of course a proportion of the local breeding population may have this pattern - I'll try to get to some offshore colonies next year and have a look.

See also the subadult individual that I posted in post 1496 which also showed a similar white tongue on P10, and P9 was quite thayeri-like as well.

I'll post on gull-research as suggested.

Geoff