After work I went back to see if there were any gulls at Longhirst flash. As expected the gulls seen yesterday weren't there. A small flock of Black headeds in the field and a Lesser black backed gull bathing in the pond. It wasn't until the gull came out of the water when I noticed for a LBB it's upperparts were as dark as a Great black backed gull. I won't even think about being any kind of gull expert. I like them but they are not my favoutite species and trying to race or age them has always been a challenge but sometimes one or two birds will stand out among the crowd. I managed a few pics (above). Could this be a bird of the baltic race 'fuscus'? I would need some help with this.
In the meadows 2 Blackcaps singing in the Abbey woods...my first of the year.
2 comments:
Hi AM, I'm no expert but I saw a few fuscus a few years ago in eastern Europe, I was struck by how the mantle was the same colour as the primaries almost, with no contrast, they also had small mirrors on the primaries....
Your bird appears dark, but the mantle looks to contrast with the primaries and I can see what apears to be at least one larger white mirror.... could this be "intermedius" from Norway ?
Hi Abbey,
It does look like an 'Intermedius' type LBB gull.
PS thanks for the comments onmy blog.
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