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Caspian Gull ~ 1st. W ~ Dungeness, Kent - 21.12.14

Monday, 22 December 2014

It seems like its been ages since the last Caspian to come in close enough for the camera but finally today ended the wait ...

Earlier in the roost behind the Fish Hut at Dungeness was a 1st. W bird with the usual bleached and faded coverts, within minutes of finding the bird it was flushed by children chasing the flock ...

After 2 hrs at the puddles, and still no sign of the earlier bird this beauty dropped in !!

  
A different 1st. W bird, with fresh non faded coverts still looking a nice chocolate colour, something which I haven't seen before in a December bird, then the doubt sets in, is it, isn't it !!




There's a few points that bother me ...

The fresh looking coverts.
The lack of pattern on undertail.
Underwing pattern.
And lack of barring on uppertail.

All these probably come within variation ..


Just not use to seeing a Caspian looking so fresh & smart in December ..


'Omissus' Herring Gulls ~ Getlini, Latvia - 21 / 23 .11.14

Sunday, 30 November 2014

Larus argentatus 'omissus'
or
Marsh Gull

This Eastern Baltic race of argentatus breeds on marshes in Latvia / Estonia & W. Russia.

At Getlini Dump, Rumbula in Latvia there was quite a good percentage of omissus types .. 




The subspecies 'omissus' is Herring Gull with yellow legs, which is variable from pale tinged to bright yellow, resembling michahellis.






The orbital ring of 'omissus' is reddish, again similar to michahellis, where as in argentatus its yellowish ..











The grey mantle shade is slightly paler than argentatus with a Kodak Grey Scale 4.5 ~ 6 against michahellis Grey scale of 5~ 7.
In the field under overcast conditions the grey of the mantle seemed no different to birds with pink legs.







The wing-tip pattern of 'omissus' shows a large white tip to P10.
P9 mirror with the sub-terminal band either solid or broken across the web.
P5 is either un-marked or a thin band.

Most michahellis have a broad unbroken band to P5.









I'd be most interested to see 'omissus'
in breeding plumage, to note the intensity of leg & orbital ring colour.


  

Audouin's Gull ~ 2nd. W ~ ** MEGA ** ~ Dungeness, Kent - 12.10.14

Monday, 13 October 2014

Straight off the plane from Poland and headed down to Dungeness for the afternoon ..
Easterly winds and raining, so we set-up at the puddles. The usual snacks went out for the gulls but all we had in was a 1st. W. YLG ...
It was now raining quite hard, it was early evening and noticed DW on the concrete road, He was heavily into a bird amongst the flock, after five minutes he's still going at it with his camera, and was now joined by Andy A ..
Pulling up bumper to bumper a quick scan and a smart 3rd. W. Caspian stood out, a quick exchange of words took place ...

DW ... 3rd. Winter
Me ... Yep 3rd. Winter
DW ... What do you make of that odd bird to the left of the casp ?

My reply was what spun it in the wrong direction !! ... Doh !!

Me ... That's got Laughing in it !!
DW ... Must have ...
AA .. Laughing X Ring-billed ..

And so we F*@k up the id !!

It wasn't until I got the images on the PC, then it all finally clicked ...

Dodgy record shots .. omg

Audouin's Gull ~ 2nd. W



For some better images ...


Great Northern Diver ~ Iceland - 30.06.14

Sunday, 20 July 2014

This species was my most wanted target for the trip to photograph, they are just stunning birds ...
Unlike their smaller cousins we only found these on huge lakes and the birds distant, with little time we just moved on ...
Whilst Jono was on Flatey papping the Phals, we scouted out the Snaefellsnes Peninsula and found a pair, still on a huge lake but easy to approach in cover, returning the next day one of the pair was closer in, so we waited for our moment then got into position ...

Great Northern Diver




Above .....  1/1000 ~ F 4 ~ iso 640

This next series showing the display was fantastic to watch, shame not only for the bank appearing through the bird but also the bird is turned away, these faults would normally result in me throwing them in the recycle bin ...


  


Above ..... 1/500 ~ F 5.6 ~ iso 640



Our next encounter was returning back from Myvatn, another huge lake with 3 adults close in the light was poor but the birds looked superb ...












If only for better light, the grey cloud cover increased and the light failed so we gave in ...
A superb bird in summer plumage !!


Barrow's Goldeneye ~ Iceland - 30.06.14

Tuesday, 15 July 2014

This species wasn't going to be tried for in this trip, but after 2 good days on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula we talked ourselves into it !!
So after a few hours sleep we started off at 03:00am it was a 440km drive and about 51/2 hrs !!!
I thought that the chances of finding a bird was slim, and at most a few birds in total at distance, how wrong was I ..
We had only driven part way around the lake when we found a flock of 100+ birds on one side of the road and 3 odd birds on a smaller lake on the other side of the road ..
The 3 birds were tried and they just swam out to the opposite side of the lake, crossing back over the road to another bay we found a smaller flock c.30 birds which stayed close to the bank ...
This was on the 848 just past the turning to Skutustadhir ...
Lat .. 65.573222
Lon .. -16.951143

Barrow's Goldeneye









We had a good seesions with the flock before they all fell asleep so we moved on, returning later and finding all the birds had gone ...
A great day with the Barrow's as a bonus for the trip, we started back about 4ish and stopped a few times striking it lucky ...