2cy Lesser Black-backed Gulls 2013!

27. May this year a 2cy LBBG sat on the pier on Langvannet. A 2cy LBBG in Oslo is in itself quite good! Little did I know that this would be an extraordinary year 2cy LBBG-wise on Langvannet. Three days later two 2cy LBBG sat side by side on the same pier (I have some crappy photos of both). Then it went silent (except one 11.6), and I went on holiday elsewhere. The first day on Langvannet after that was 15. July. It resulted in one new 2cy LBBG. Then they kept coming...

15.7: Ind 1, only seen this day

22.7: Ind 2, got colorring J435A and was last seen 19.9 

22.7: Ind 3, last seen 31.7

22.7: Ind 4, maybe the most interesting individual, last seen 26.8 

24.7: Ind 5, last seen 12.8

26.7: Ind 6, only seen this day

27.7: Ind 7, last seen 28.7

27.7: Ind 8, this or ind 13 hold out until 19.9

27.7: Ind 9, last seen 19.8

28.7: Ind 10, last seen 19.8

29.7: Ind 11, only seen on this day

31.7: Ind 12, a bird that looked like this was seen 20.8

7.8: Ind 13, very similar to ind 8! One of them was last seen 19.9

2.8: Ind 14, last seen 12.8

9.8: Ind 15, only seen this day

11.8: Ind 16, fuscus! (?) only seen a few minutes

11.8: Ind 17, only seen this day

11.8: Ind 18, last seen 14.8

12.8: Ind 19, ringed individual!
Probably ring in Fredrikstad some weeks earlier,
but ring impossible to read.

Well... 19 different photographed individuals after 15. July... By an inland lake with 100-200 gulls at the time. A full list of records from Langvannet this year can be found here. The best day was 11.8 with 8 different individuals the same day!

Elsewhere in Norway it has also been a lot of 2cy LBBG. I have seen one at Østensjøvannet, 7 side-by-side at Årnestangen, one at Øra, one in Middelalderparken, and finally one late individual at Mosvannet 12.10. I have personally seen about 30 2cy LBBG this year!

Where do these birds come from?
We don't know... Only one colorring that wasn't put on this year was read. It was ringed as 1cy on Oslo in september 2012. We don't know where it came from either... A 1cy LBBG on Langvannet a couple of days ago was ringed as young in Troms, which should indicate that 1cy autumn birds can come from everywhere...

Some 2cy birds doesn't look like classic intermedius either. Ind 16 and ind 4 are good examples of that. So maybe many of them are of eastern origin? Ind 4 may even look like a heuglini? More photos of it is anyway to be found here. Some of the birds also have 2 moult cycles going on in there wings (eg. 4), another weak sign of eastern origin... Maybe we will know something new in 10 or 20 years (or 2)....

31.8: Middelalderparken

03.8: Østensjøvannet