Sunday 9 October 2016

Azores Autumn 2016 Day 1

Darryl and I arrived on the Azores today for Autumn 2016. We are on Sao Miguel for the next two days. Only had a couple of hours today. Highlights were a fly-by Wilson's Phalarope on seawatch and a Michahellis-type Yellow-legged Gull amongst the Azores Yellow-legged Gulls.



 Wilson's Phalarope
Un-edited view. Took us a while to work out what the hell it was 

Mich-type YLG. The juvenile mantle and scaps point towards a late fledgling, or could indicate moult retarded due to vagrancy pressures. The pale inner primary window points towards YLG complex rather than LBB. Possibly a YLG ssp from one of the other Atlantic Islands? Certainly a lot of features outside the known range of  variation of Azores YLG. 

No comments: