Kumlien's Gull ~ 2nd. W ~ Littlehampton, West Sussex - 01.02.15

Tuesday 3 February 2015

It was good to hear that the Kumlien's Gull had returned to winter in Littlehampton, West Sussex this was the first chance of being able to see this bird as a 3rd. Cycle 2nd. Winter ...

As a static bird the changes in its plumage is less apparent, as most of the 3rd generation feathers are not on show ...


Kumlien's Gull ~ 2nd. W

  

The 2nd generation feathers, primaries, secondaries, coverts are showing little signs of wear.

Its when the bird shows off its upperparts with a nice dorsal view that the 3rd gen feathers really show up ...


The mantle feathers are moulting through to grey 3rd gen, and the moult to 2nd. W should be complete by the end of March ..












The next set of images shows how it retained its 1st gen feathers until they were worn and bleached ...





I'm hoping that it keeps returning !!

2 comments:

Germán Ibarra Zorrilla said...

Que ave más bella y las fotografías son excelentes. Saludos desde España.
http://faunacompacta.blogspot.com.es/

Jamie Medford said...

Great set Mick, good to catch up with you and Richard again.