16 March 2010

American Herring Gull at Cefn Sidan

My efforts yesterday weren't worth posting, but Ed Hunter has sent me the best images to date of the American Herring Gull taken today. The tail, rump, vent, wing markings in flight are all spot on for this race. The underwing now seems to be the only missing piece of the jigsaw, although this may have been seen by some observers.
Don't let this last image fool you into thinking it's a small bird, in fact it's quite the opposite, it's a brute!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Barry,its Bernie Beck,you have the bird down as a race,it has been split by the BOU,and is a species,cheers Bernie

Barry Stewart said...

Thanks Bernie - Harpic also put me right at last night's meeting. In which case I'm a bit surprised it's not generated a bit more interest. Either the photos are not convincing enough or the long walk is putting people off going to look? I think perhaps only ~7 people have made the effort so far - quite bemusing!

Anonymous said...

People might be waiting for better photos,a dodgy game to play for such a rare bird,best bet go and see it,and make your own mind up,once its gone,its gone

Barry Stewart said...

After looking at this page I'm tempted to give up! http://ostfoldmaker.blogspot.com/2009/12/smithsonianus-lookalikes.html