Wednesday 20 March 2013

Gull Dilemmas

Can anybody help me? I saw this guy at Barmston on a flash. Obviously white-headed with a bulky build but with an 'interesting' scap pattern I am torn between michahellis and argentatus. I have no literature to hand - its all at a mates house. Im struggling a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO9U51UqQ34

The above link goes to the video which doesnt want to embed. It is a bit better quality than the still.

I also got a couple of stills before it was flushed by some marauding Lapwings.


I was testing out my new Canon Sx50 and I was impressed despite the gloom. I also stumbled on a couple of littoralis Rock Pipits. These were smart, especially the pink one!
Not Pink
Pink
I managed four year ticks for the patch of varying quality. The first was a slightly overdue Lesser Black-backed Gull. It was even an intermedius for added bonus. Baring in mind the displaying adult I saw in Driffield yesterday I wasn't overwhelmed. 2 Greylags and 2 Moorhens around the south of the patch were expected and overdue. Best of all was a Short-eared Owl that was roosting in the drain 2/3s of the way to Fraisthorpe which managed to avoid my prying lens.

Best of the rest included a couple of Snipe, 8 Dunlin, a Woodcock and a Grey Plover. All in all an excellent trip out but it would be made better if somebody could give me a considered opinion on the gull.

5 comments:

Gavin Haig said...

On the gull there's not enough there for me to make much of it I'm afraid James. Did you get wing pattern as it flew? Should have lacked pale inner primaries if YLG...and had a nice crisp tail band of course.

Yorkslister said...

Most Herrings are white headed by now James. I have to echo Gavin's comments above but will say it doesn't have the facial expression of a YLG to me

James said...

Cheers chaps. I genuinely didn't know one way or the other but it looked very different to the other 2CY Herrings that I had seen in the morning. It looked better in real life than the still although the video is a fair representation. it was really dark lightwise. I knew trying to do it on scaps and coverts was beyond me tbh. Gav - I didn't see it fly due to a comedy of errors, or just plain bad luck. Just after the video a Woodcock flew out of the ditch I was hiding behind, flushing a couple of Grey Partridges which in turn flushed Lapwing and they the gulls. Like dominoes and I lost the gull pretty quickly.

Gavin Haig said...

James, if that gull was on the Axe I wouldn't claim YLG without upperwing and tail pattern at this time of year - I certainly wouldn't be 100% confident without.

PS. Cracking Scandy Rockit, that pink one!

James said...

Thanks Gavin,

The gull has gone on the I don't know pile...next time I'll get that tail band! Plenty of scandy rockits but that was the only pink one.

How birds and brains become mutually exclusive

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