I had a good time gull watching (not gulling) at Shawell yesterday evening. I read a total of 16 colour rings and saw three Caspian Gulls and quite a few Yellow-legged Gulls.
The 1CY was slightly odd structurally, but its bill ratio and primary projection seem OK. In the photo below the primary projection looks short and measures short, but in other photos it measures OK and falls within the norm for 1CY. It is still too young to use the trait scoring system, but the traits that can be used are OK. It can make your head hurt trying to work out if a particular Caspian Gull is pure. Any opinions on this gull are welcomed, as I'm always keen to learn. You can either comment directly to the blog or email me. Comments on Blogger don't always seem to work, but I've found if you click on Preview after writing the comment it helps.
This 1CY is likely to be the same as the one seen on both the 9th and 13th August - see comments below.
Just prior to seeing the 1CY Casp, I spotted an adult, which landed reasonably close and stayed long enough for me to get a few images. Its plumage is spot on: you can see the underside of the longest primary on the far wing and the pattern is text book good. The bill is also good, although its eyes are a little pale, but not as pale as Herring or Yellow-legged Gulls. Its legs are long and thin and the right colour.
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The final one is a 2CY.
In addition to the three pictured here, I saw a very distant 2CY, which looked OK for Caspian Gull plumage wise, but structurally it was obviously not pure and had plenty of Herring Gull genes.
Below is one of the more interesting YLG's.
The 1CY was slightly odd structurally, but its bill ratio and primary projection seem OK. In the photo below the primary projection looks short and measures short, but in other photos it measures OK and falls within the norm for 1CY. It is still too young to use the trait scoring system, but the traits that can be used are OK. It can make your head hurt trying to work out if a particular Caspian Gull is pure. Any opinions on this gull are welcomed, as I'm always keen to learn. You can either comment directly to the blog or email me. Comments on Blogger don't always seem to work, but I've found if you click on Preview after writing the comment it helps.
This 1CY is likely to be the same as the one seen on both the 9th and 13th August - see comments below.
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| Presumed 1CY Caspian Gull |
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| Same as Above |
Just prior to seeing the 1CY Casp, I spotted an adult, which landed reasonably close and stayed long enough for me to get a few images. Its plumage is spot on: you can see the underside of the longest primary on the far wing and the pattern is text book good. The bill is also good, although its eyes are a little pale, but not as pale as Herring or Yellow-legged Gulls. Its legs are long and thin and the right colour.
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| Close Up |
The final one is a 2CY.
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| 2CY Caspian Gull (at the back) |
In addition to the three pictured here, I saw a very distant 2CY, which looked OK for Caspian Gull plumage wise, but structurally it was obviously not pure and had plenty of Herring Gull genes.
Below is one of the more interesting YLG's.
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| Beast of a 2CY Yellow-legged Gull |
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| Colour-ringed LBB Gull (J7MM), ringed as a chick during July 2010 in Norway |