Can you ‘do’ first winters?
Found myself asking that question once again. Yesterday came across the bird below at Catcliffe Flash, Sheffield. It’s a first winter Common Gull- no argument. However unlike many/most first winters normally seen in the U.K. This one has couple of extra dark bits. These are:
- Rump and uppertail unusually well barred with brown
- Dark mottling over white areas of the tail
- Dark barring on longest auxiliaries
Note the tail band on this bird isn’t that broad: On some Common Gulls wintering in Japan, the black tail band is wide enough to reach the edge of the uppertail coverts. On others however the rump and tail pattern is very similar to this (Sheffield) bird.
I think the third feature (auxiliary barring) is not uncommon, but the tail and rump pattern on this bird seemed to be to be a bit unusual.
I have an assumption which may or may not be correct.
The eastern most taxa Kamchatka Gull kamtschatschensis has the most dark on the tail, most barred rump and most barring in underwings coverts. My assumption is that as you go ‘east’ the dark pigmentation increases in Common Gull, terminating in kamtschatschensis.
Thus, such individuals as the bird below might be identifiable heinei - ‘Russian’ or Siberian Common Gulls. Yes or no?
Any thoughts? Input very welcome! How common is this tail and rump pattern combo in Western Europe?
All photos Catcliffe Flash, Sheffield, 21 December 2010.
Hello Martin.
If you haven´t already, check here, where Geoff starts on and further on to page 3.
http://www.talk.gull-research.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3&start=10
JanJ
Martin
That is the question that I have been asking myself this month. I have put some pictures on Gull Research, and pics by others from elsewhere as linked by JanJ. For more images of the birds I have seen, see my blog http://morgithology.blogspot.com – just search under Common Gull.
I think that axillary barring may be more regular than I was expecting, and perhaps more commonly in birds with the darker thumbprint type markings on their underwing coverts. Not all those with barred axillaries have spotted upper tail coverts/rump areas.
I have only seen one bird with a strong smoky tail, like yours above, and I think that this might be a genuinely rare form. Like your bird, it had a relatively narrow tail band. I have photographed others where the tail band almost meets the uppertail coverts, which is another interesting variant.
One thing that I cannot find is an equivalent bird photographed from known or expected heinei wintering areas. The limited images show tails similar to our regular canus pattern.
Geoff
Jan, Geoff and Alan T (who emailed me)
Thanks for getting in touch and glad to hear there are a few folk looking at these things. I didn’t know about these great discussions going on.
I did pull out the DB paper (Leon Edelaar and Enno Ebels) as soon as I got back home, but like the others, with no hard data on heinei appearance, hard to progress. I looked at the British Museum skin years ago- and recall that 2nd winter heinei had more frequent occurrence of partial black tail bands (bird number 9 in Peter Adriaen’s collection look like 2nd cycle to me here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Zorkyyy/CommonGull1stCycle#5549203165724062594 ).
Geoff- great and informative set of images. Be good to get a copy of some of those papers in English if possible.
Seeing ringing recoveries from Kazakhstan area, I would imagine some central Asian hienei can go east (Pacific) or west (Atlantic) to winter. Same birds could even spent consecutive winters- one year in e.g. Japan, next winter in W. Europe (as has been shown for Pochard). Much to learn!
Martin
Hi Martin,
I have seen two Common Gulls here in Cork striking enough for me to suspect that they were something different, but, unfortunately, neither was photographed, and, even if they had been, it may still not have been possible to go much further.
Both birds were 2nd-winters: the first one, back in 1999, was a very striking bird, being much darker than the other Common Gulls (perhaps a shade or two paler than a typical graellsii LBBG), long-winged, and with a neat ‘shawl’ of streaking on the nape, almost like on (many) winter Caspian Gulls. I’d need to dig out my notes to recall any more, but I do remember thinking that, even if not a pure heinei, it surely came from further east than most of our wintering birds.
The other bird, which was much more recent, presented an intriguing appearance, with a marked brownish wash to many of the coverts (especially the greaters), and a broken tail band. I don’t recall it being a particularly dark bird, or long-winged, but I had never seen, and have not seen subsequently, a 2nd-w Common Gull with such a retarded appearance.
Of course, this far west, we need to be aware of Mew Gull also…
from Peter Adriaens and apologies from me for doubting his gull ageing
Hi guys,
Martin, I can assure you that I take great care in ageing and identifying the gulls that I post. In bird 9, the brown streaks on all secondaries should be enough to safely age it as a 1st winter, but if doubts still linger: I have posted two more photographs of this bird. They are not great (which is why I left them out), but one shows the bird from above, making it much easier to age.
@Harry: for retarded 2nd-winter Common Gulls, see bird 6 and 7 at the following URL:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Zorkyyy/CommonGull2ndCycle#
6 was photographed in Newfoundland, 7 in Iceland – not places where you would really expect heinei to turn up.
Note the pattern of the secondaries, which differs from 1st-winter birds.
Cheers,
Peter
Likewise, I wish to make it clear that I never suggested that either of the 2nd-winters that I mentioned previously had to be heinei, or any other rare form, for that matter: they were simply distinctive enough that I suspected that they may have been, particularly the long-winged, dark-mantled bird. Given the extent of variation within nominate canus, however, I never claimed either as anything. I have seen, for example, a handful of 2cy birds in Feb-March that are still more or less in complete juvenile plumage (maybe one every two years, possibly 1-2 a year back when the Cork Lough was more productive for gulls), and, while it is tempting to speculate that such birds share a common geographical origin, it is likely that birds from anywhere in the range of canus could present such an appearance…as with the 2nd-winters, I have not claimed these as anything rarer.
One can hardly blame Martin (no offence) for ageing Peters bird nr 9 from below a 2 cycle.
My first impression was likewise a 2 cycle with mirrors on p10 (although a few 1st cycle show a mirror, sometimes larger than on Peters bird), and pale unmarked underwing. However, while the secondaries do show darkish streaking – it´s not so difficult to miss out on this in the image.
I know for a fact that Peter is a meticulous and skilled birder (!) but we can all be mistaken – even we (read all others), prestigious men, not saying that he is…
Cheers
JanJ