Beddington

A good day on the farm. The lake remained frozen all day. The 1st winter Iceland Gull (bottom) was on the ice, as was an adult Mediterranean Gull (above). A 1st winter Caspian looking gull was also present (below). Most of the Shoveler, Gadwall and aythya ducks had presumably found refuge else where. There were still 50+ Teal on the scrape.

Presumably if this weather keeps up we might see something in the way of cold weather displacement.

Checked in on the Long-eared Owls- there were still two or three on the bridge.


Lapwing on ice

Spent an hour in the evening trying out my new i-pod in Beddington Park. Called in a couple of Little Owls.

Kew Gardens

Went to Kew Gardens today to have a look at the winter trees.

This Ring-necked Parakeet was one of several in the park.

Saw a Barn Owl yesterday hunting during the day at Fleet Head in Essex.

Darwin Exhibition at the Natural History Museum

I would thoroughly recommend the Darwin Exhibition at the Natural History Museum. The God Father of Modern Biology and the Greatest Brit ever (in my opinion).

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/darwin/
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/

Gull sp. The Plot Thickens

Lee Evans kindly followed up on the gull sp (see below) and contacted gull master Peter Adriaens. It was good to hear from Peter again, who guided me on the identification of the Short-billed Gull on the Azores from 2003.

He drew my attention to these links from another gull expert, Visa Rauste: http://www.helsinki.fi/~rauste/gulls/hannu11.html and http://www.helsinki.fi/~rauste/gulls/parnu02.html

Peter says that the situation is complicated by eastern baltic argentatus herring gulls that can show features which recall Caspian. To make things even more interesting there is genetic evidence provided by Pierre-Andre Crochet et al that this variation of the eastern baltic argentatus is due to the presence of genetic material from an unknown perhaps even ancient gull species.

It really dont get much better than that in gull identification- a 'hybrid' with an extinct species.

Conservation Day at Beddington

We managed to clear the lake of birds today while we were clearing the islands and edges of willow scrub.

It was a good day, we literally pushed the boat out (click on below link for more):

http://peteralfrey.blogspot.com/

Gull sp.

Here is another photo of a large white headed gull which I have chosen to label 'Caspian-type'. As this bird has generated a little bit of discussion I got a bit worried and gave it some more thought.

The reason why I think this bird is not a 2nd Yellow-legged Gull is as follows: a) Lacks a darkish 'eye' mask thus appearing distinctively 'white-headed'. b) p10 mirror in 2nd win is a Caspian feature and not Yellow-legged Gull, c) structurally I interpret this bird as being 'long-necked' and perhaps even small headed, not much of a tertial step and maybe even a hint of a full breast- all more Caspian features but I wouldn't put too much emphasis on my subjectivity with structure on a bird like this d) Also perhaps the dark tip, pale based bill and dark eye- maybe (?) pointers towards Caspian.

To my eyes, I don't think there is too much to suggest argentatus- the white head, dark eye, lack of blue grey in the upperparts, structure etc but some people have suggested they can see argentatus in it.

Therefore, as it shows Caspian features- why not a Caspian. Well, I would prefer not to call anything a Caspian unless it is a classic. Malling Olsen and Larsson's 'Gulls' deal with Caspian Gull- condensing a lot of independent papers and discussions into a concise summary- so I think Caspian Gull identification has become easier in recent years. Basically if it don't look like the birds in plates 42 and 43 it isn't one. I cant find this latest Beddington bird in this book- so...good night to that particular bird.

This book has even been endorsed as 'high standard' by the BOURC Taxonomic Sub-committee (TSC) (BB:101 pg 344) so I think can pass for 'scientific'. Although I am not too sure if my game of 'snap' qualifies as such.

That may be over-simplifying things but there are still gaps in knowledge about the variation within Caspian Gull and there appears to be hybridisation between Herring (argentatus)-Caspian at least in central Poland and also there are birds showing mixed characteristic from the Volga to Scandinavia. Therefore it appears a good idea to be cautious when assigning the name Caspian Gull unless it is a classic. The sink term 'Caspian-type' is a bit of a cop out but just points towards Caspian when it shows more features than say Yellow-legged so maybe a convenient way of logging these birds. Perhaps it is even more appropriate to call this bird gull sp. but personally I feel we can narrow it down just a little bit more. Of course, I could be wrong.

Fleet Head- Essex

Met up with Simon for some Essex birding. Fleet Head is pretty good in the winter- although it is difficult to photograph here as things are pretty distant. We had six Short-eared Owls, Hen Harrier, Marsh Harrier, Merlin, thousands of Brents, 5 Ruff, 5 Red-breasted Merganser, Corn Bunting, a few Rock Pipits and good numbers of other waders and water fowl including 200 Golden Plover.

As it was Essex also managed to bag a greasy spoons fry up and six fried donuts at Southend.