Adult Caspian Gulls, Dumpiai - some real beauties

There is something oddly satisfying about kneeling down on a rubbish dump and having a beautiful adult cachinnans walk towards and come within a couple of metres of you, happily feeding away. So, this post brings back fond memories of long sunny days spent photographing cachinnans on Dumpiai dump , Klaipeda, Lithuania (September 2010).

A large and very aggressive (presumably male) bird. It was calling very regularly and seemed to dominate all other gulls present.

This and the photos below all show the same individual

Adult Caspian Gulls, Lithuania (September 2010).

This post shows a selection of Caspian Gulls from Preila Pier on the Neringa Spit, Lithuania. Photos were all taken in mid September. The ringed Ukrainian bird above is an annual visitor to the pier. The birds below illustrate the differences between the sexes, as well as some interesting less typical features.

Leg colour varies enormously.

This bird is interesting - it has bright bare parts (note especially the red of gonys extending onto the upper mandible) and a rather well streaked head. Some may argue that these features make this bird not safely identifiable as cachinnans.

'thayeri' P10 pattern, as visible on this bird, is not so unusual in cachinnans.

A proud (male) bird

Another bright bird

A near-adult

Oddly short legs

Iceland, Med and a dark tailed Herring Gull: 4 & 5 December

The was by far the most interesting bird of the weekend - a 2w Herring Gull with a tail pattern extremely like an American Herring Gull L. smithsonianus. The rump and ventral barring however were not as one would ideally like on a smithsonianus (i.e. not dense enough for a bird on this side of the Atlantic); also, the feather patterns on the wing coverts and scapulars were not like the most distinctive (identifiable) type of smithsonianus and the body plumage, though nice and dark, was too blotchy. Nonetheless, an interesting bird.

Same bird as above.

Med Gull, Cairnbulg. Still a scare bird up here; this is one of the semi-resident birds which frequent the Frazerburgh area.

Med Gull, Cairnbulg

Both Iceland Gulls were present at Peterhead again over the weekend. This sequence of photos shows the paler of the two.