Iceland Gull in July

Against all odds a Iceland Gull showed up at Langvannet today. The bird was a 3cy, and probably a male since it was large and heavily built. If anything I was aiming for a Yellow-legged or Caspian...

2. summer Iceland Gull

2. summer Iceland Gull

One bird got my pulse up. A Herring-like gull with heavy bill and bright yellow legs. Also head and wing looks quite good for Yellow-legged. Still I don't have the experience to nail a mich... Sadly the bird only was seen a few minutes. It gained altitude and disappeared towards north.

Looks good with square head, yellow legs and a lot of black in wing

The window in P9 on the other hand, do not look as good...
It makes the bird a yellow-legged Herring Gull

Also... Another Lesser Black-backed with colorring from the same island as last one! What are they doing here now? Think I will make a post about them, and other fuscus like gulls at Langvannet, later this week (or next).

Gulling is complicated!

Right now I can't think of any other group of birds that has larger variation than gulls. Maybe it don't exist. Still there has do be something that makes us watch them, follow their every move. Looking up ID articles on the internet,  reading peoples comments to new discoveries, follow ringed birds, reading throw books. It seems that birding has something more to it.

Just recently I have wondered why we keep resourcing and trying to get more information. Why can't we just walk past it and say it's a bird? Personally, I have never managed to make up a good answer to that question. Still, I keep it up. Take photos, reads. I think that these questions isn't that important actually. The main thing is that we do.

Well, this wasn't supposed to be so philosophical. I was actually reading about Common Gulls. Which isn't that bad. Still they have an enormous variations.

Martin Garner just posted (2 hours ago) a post about Russian Common Gulls (ssp heinei). This made me think, and of course search the internet for more... I didn't find a whole lot more about them. A lot of literature seems to describe canus and heinei in the same block, something that shows how small differences there are. Martins gull looks really good. Still, how could we know that it isn't a extreme extreme canus? Do anybody know how weird a canus can look? We have only tried to identify birds since the 19something and it's clear that there is so much to learn. The digital photo world has made it easier, but there isn't enough photos of Common Gulls yet. We need a lot of rings on the birds as pullus. First then we can get photos of extreme variation.

Even harder than Common Gulls is the Iceland problem. What is a Kumlien's? When can we put it at the back of (or front in English) the "Iceland Gull"? GullDK just posted this one. It gets your mind running! I agrees with the points, still I think that we need more people resourcing on it. Personally I am a fan of the Kumlien's=hybrid between Thayer's and Iceland. It kind of explain every variation in the range. At least if the hybrids is reproductive!

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

If you want something done, you have to do it yourself!

Well, the Mediterranean Gull has been seen almost everyday the last week. The problem was that the bird was visible only some minutes every day! Large amounts of small gulls migrated over Frognerparken at the evening, and sometimes the Med was seen together with them. The bird has to be somewhere during the day! With that in mind I took a trip to Oslo to look for gulls.

The Med Gull always came in from north in the evening. So that was the place to look. I started of by a short look at Frognerparken, but only two Black-headed sat on the ice. With no gull in the park, I walked north against Majorstuen. Here I filled up the bag with old bread from Rema 1000, and started looking at the gulls on the roof. 200 meters up Kirkeveien I saw two small gulls on a chimney. Binoculars where pointed at them, and the bird that was turned away was looking good. A Med Gull on the chimney! I walked around and tried to feed the birds. Not hard at all. All the birds in the area came, but they rarely landed.

Most likely the Med has been in the area from Majorstuen to Marienlyst all the time since it last was under control. The only problem is that nobody has been looking for it!

Simon (and every body else!), now you may have a chance to see the bird in 2012! Not all of us needed 10 trips ;)

Med Gull on the ground!

The Iceland at Frogn is still present!

Still White-winged and Mediterranean Gull

Today there was still one Iceland Gull at Skiphelle. Today I have been there to look at it.

The Mediterranean Gull was again seen at Frognerparken this evening. The bird have never been there during the day, but have migrated south in the evening almost every time it has been seen. Where are the bird during the day? Just to start looking!

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.