2.winter Herring Gull (possible Glaucous Gull hybrid)

Makkevika, Giske, Møre & Romsdal 21.02.2013

Marienlyst last weekend

Took a trip to Marienlyst and rest of Oslo with John Maritn Mjelde last weekend. Main point was something between ringing and reading colorrings. It ended up with no ringing, but some colorrings where read. A new Common Gull has arrived from Stavanger and was read at St. Hanshaugen, never seen outside of Breiavatnet in Stavanger. It was ringed in 2001, but got colorring firstly in February 2011. Most likely a stable Oslo area bird, since it only has been seen in Stavanger during the winter.

At Marienlyst we got some small gulls after 2 attempts. The Med Gull was still in the flock. The dark one that Simon had was seen briefly, and some underwing shoots where made. It disappeared and didn't return for bread.

A little to close actually

Read also http://oagull.blogspot.com/2012/03/heavily-marked-1cy-common-gull.html 

Also a Common Gull with Swedish ring metalring was present. I manage to read all the numbers by photos. Have made a map in Google Maps:

Vis Common Gull i et større kart

Today a Glaucous Gull was seen at Huk. Wonder if this is the colorringed one, or if it is someone new?

White gulls in Møre and Romsdal

A trip to Møre and Romsdal in the Winter-vacation gave a lot more white gulls than earlier expected. Summing up the week have given at least 90 different Iceland, most likely a lot more. Sadly only three Glaucous where found. This post will mainly look at ID on the white ones. Of course some ringing data from the trip will be looked at. Starts of with some easy identification.

3cy Glaucous Gull

3cy Iceland Gull

Blue JM5Z is ringed as 3cy+ at Valderøya. It has been refound one time  in Ørsta. Here it is in Mauseidvåg.

Now over to the not so easy ones. This Iceland was found in Mauseidvåg some minutes before the marked one over. I think this bird is a 4cy. 5cy is certainly hard to exclude. Still I don't think a 5cy would have had so much dark markings in bout tail and coverts. Also, this bird show some Kumlien's features. I personly don't think it's enough for confident ID on Kumlien's but I'm sure some people would have disagreed with me. I didn't manage to get any good flight shoots of the bird. Actually quite hard to locate in a large fish-eating flock of hungry Herrings!

4cy Iceland Gull (Kumlien's?)

4cy Iceland Gull (Kumlien's?)

4cy Iceland Gull (Kumlien's?)

Another one. Kumlien's? Shows some dark in primaries on the water, but seems to be limited to small dirty spots on primary-center. Still not enough to claim Kumlien's in my head.

4cy+ Iceland Gull

Most white gulls during the week was 3cy. Under follows two photos from same day, same time, and almost same place. Still clearly two different birds. First one looks nice for Kumlien's be first look, but again, I don't think it's enough. Dark on inner primaries, but utter web seems to be light colored. Out of the Kumlien's rage or? Looks quit like this one: A' Type 1' sailed eider and an extremely dark 'Iceland' Gull Not the Eider, but the gull :)

3cy Iceland Gull

This one on the other hand looks more like what I had expected from a 3cy Iceland. Shining white primaries!

3cy Iceland Gull

Finally, one good looking Kumlien's. Wing pattern seems to be perfect. Even really week, but still.

4cy+ Kumlien's Gull

Just one nice white one at the end.

3cy Iceland Gull

And to everyone looking for Glaucous Gulls, watch out for this!

Herring Gull

Same one as over

Crazy winter in Norway!

As I wrote about the 13., a lot of white gulls have been seen this winter in Norway. When we look at Icelands, it seems impossible to come up with a sensible number. But a quick count of Artsobservasjoner gave 115 different birds only today! 55 of these in Sør-Trøndelag. The one location with most birds was Uthaug Havn, ST with 24 individuals! It also seems like the second Kumlien's from Sandsøya only was the start of a bigger wave of this ssp. Today a lot more Kumlien's where found in Sør-Trøndelag. When will the first Thayler's show up?! Here is a compare photo of the number of Iceland Gull records from January 2012 v.s. January 2011:

The Glaucous was back at Vaterland today. Let us look at one more photos from some days ago.

White Gulls!

So far this winter a lot of Glaucous Gulls and Iceland Gulls have been found along the coasts of Norway. Some in Oslo and Akershus as well. Two Glaucous and one Iceland so far. At the Faraoes they have over hundred Iceland right now, about 30 Kumlien's. It have also been one Kumlien's in Norway this winter, one at Sandsøya 11 January.

Photo: Ingar Støyle Bringsvor

Today, Ingar, found the second Kumlien's gull of the year! Also at Sandsøya.

Still Glaucous Gull

The one Glaucous is still at Vaterland. It is the same bird that has been stationary here for some time now. The bird from Bjørvika isn't been seen since the day I found it. Today the Glaucous was also ringed by Morten Helberg, and colorring with number JP376 is placed on left foot.

No Mediterranean today...

Glaucous Gulls

Late yesterday evening, a Glaucous Gull where found by John Martin Mjelde, Carsten Lome and Morten Helberg at Vaterland in Oslo. We desided to take a trip to get photos and look at this rare OA bird. We stopped at Bjørvika, and imminently saw a Glaucous in Bispevika. We thought that this was the bird from Vaterland the day before (only 500 meters away), but when John Martin came and said that it had been seen a Glaucous in Vaterland at the same time as we send BMS-message about our gull, it was clear that it wasn't the same bird! This is extremely rare in OA, and I think it is the first time two Glaucous is seen at the same time here. Still, there could have been some communication error, so we had to take a look at the bird at Vaterland. When we came up, there wasn't any Glaucous to be seen anywhere, but after a while it showed up. But was this the same bird that we had said earlier in Bjørvika. After image studies it is clear that there was two Glaucous Gulls in Oslo this day!

Bispevika - Photo: Rune Christensen.
Compare bill and tertials with photo under

Vaterland
Compare bill and tertials with photo over

Some colour-rings would have done it much simpler!