Thayer's Gulls: juveniles

It's only taken me eleven months to sort these out, but here's a first photo-blog concerning the gulls seen during my Californian trip last February. This first installment will take a look at some of the juvenile Thayer's Gulls seen during the week.

I was actually quite amazed as to just how variable juvenile thayeri could be, with the trip really changing my opinion on these birds in a European context. In fact, ever since coming back from California, the bird I found (but identified and left alone as a probable dark Kumlien's) in County Fermanagh back in January 2012 has repeatedly come back to haunt me - it's pretty clear it was easily in range of Thayer's Gull. Anyway, I digress... here's a few shots, with notes on each featured bird following the images.

Juvenile Thayer's Gull, Venice Beach, Half Moon Bay, CA, February 2013

A heavy and thick-set individual, the bill is quite hefty and the bird possesses an almost Herring Gull-like structure. The upperparts are quite heavily worn and bleached. The tertials and primaries are the darkest parts of the gull, with the former lacking any internal patterning. Note the solid dark tail and heavily barred undertail and uppertail coverts.

Juvenile Thayer's Gull, Jenner, CA, February 2013

A relatively dark individual with dark brown, solidly marked juvenile tertials and dark brown primaries. The scapulars, though heavily worn and abraded, are dark-centred, paling towards the fringes. The bill is beginning to acquire a pinkish tinge to all but the very tip.

Thayer's Gull, Jenner, CA, February 2013

This is a particularly bleached individual, with rather concolorous pale upperparts. The tertials, though quite pale and extensively pale-tipped, are still some of the darkest brown feathers on the bird, along with the tail and primaries - the latter of which seem remarkably unaffected by the sun when compared to the rest of the plumage. The bill is still extensively dark.
An open wing shot of the same bird shows the obvious pale window on the inner primaries, pale inner webs of outer primaries and obvious dark secondary bar as well as an all dark tail and heavily barred rump.

Thayer's Gull, Jenner, CA, February 2013

Another heavily bleached individual; birds like this are not uncommon after spending a winter in the Californian sun! The tertials are still very much uniform, though quite pale- the primaries (what is left of them!) are also a mid-brown.

Thayer's Gull, Jenner, CA, February 2013

A pale and slender bird with distinctly two-toned bill and heavily bleached upperparts - would this be identified as a Thayer's in Western Europe?

Thayer's Gull, Petaluma, CA, February 2013

A bird that probably fits the general Western European concept of a 'classic' juvenile Thayer's Gull: dark bill (darkest at tip), uniform brown tertials, dark brown primaries with pale fringing, heavily barred undertail coverts as well as a uniform brown wash to the underparts.

Thayer's Gull, Petaluma, CA, February 2013

Dark bill and dark brown 'shawl', but otherwise with rather pale, heavily bleached upperparts - note how some of the inner greater coverts are almost entirely off-white! The tail, tertials and primaries are also particularly heavily affected on this bird.

Thayer's Gull, Petaluma, CA, February 2013

To me, this bird has more of a European Herring Gull feel to it (especially facially), and could get overlooked as such in Europe with the greyish-brown wash to the body and relatively sparsely barred undertail coverts. The tertials show some patterning at the tips, and the primaries - a dark brown - possess obvious pale fringes.

Thayer's Gull, Petaluma, CA, February 2013

A much more distinctive individual to that above, with uniform brown underparts, dark centred juvenile scapulars, dark centred tertials (with patterning towards the tips) and dark brown primaries. The flight shot illustrates the heavily barred (and predominately chocolate brown) rump and uppertail coverts, the all dark tail and uniform chocolate axillaries. One of the nicest juveniles we saw!

Presumed Thayer's Gull, Petaluma, CA, February 2013

Another heavily bleached bird that is unlikely to be confidently identified in a Western European context - can Kumlien's Gull be ruled out, even in California? The scapulars are extensively pale with pale 'horseshoe' markings to the tips, and the coverts are also largely pale. However, the tertials are quite uniform (despite being pale) and the primaries are uniformly dark with pale fringing. The tail is all primarily dark, but too is heavily bleached.

Thayer's Gull, Petaluma, CA, February 2013

Here's another one that has an almost Herring Gull-like feel to it with quite pale (and blotchy) underparts. The undertail coverts aren't particularly heavily barred either.

Thayer's Gull, Half Moon Bay, CA, February 2013

Again quite bleached, but a really nice bird - classic in all respects. You can just about make out the silvery quality to the undersides of the bird's primaries.

Thayer's Gull, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA

Yet another heavily bleached bird - the primaries, tertials and tail have all suffered quite considerably. That said, plumage is otherwise typical Thayer's Gull.

Christmas gulls in Peterborough

Clockwise from top left: juvenile Iceland Gull 1, juvenile Iceland Gull 2, second-winter Caspian Gull, ringed first-winter Caspian Gull 'PNDZ', unringed first-winter Caspian Gull, adult Yellow-legged Gull.

I've had a couple of gull sessions in Peterborough over Christmas. Christmas Eve was pretty productive with two juvenile Iceland Gulls and three Caspian Gulls at Tanholt Pits. The 27th was slightly less produced but one Iceland remained at Tanholt alongside the ringed Caspian Gull above, and a different second-winter cachinnans was at Dogsthorpe Tip. The gull roost doesn't seem to be in full effect at CEGB reservoir, but the adult Yellow-legged Gull above was nice on 27th - michahellis are considerably scarcer than cachinnans in Peterborough in winter.

All the photos above are crap as I left my point-and-shoot in London, and had to make do with my iPhone.

Black-throated Diver

Marc Read and Black-throated Diver

Spent a couple of hours lying around in swan shit in Princes Park, Eastbourne on Monday morning. The evergreen Marc Read was on hand to pick me up and drop me off at the train station, maximizing the time I had before having to hop it back to London. The reason for my visit - a juvenile Black-throated Diver - was a little more wary than I'd hoped, and never really gave frame-filling views. Nevertheless, pretty pleased with my shots - most obtained by simply running around the lake margin to get as close as possible while the bird was submerged..!

All in all a pretty fun couple of hours, with the changeable light conditions allowing for a nice variety of shots to be taken.

The autumn that just keeps on giving...

Hermit Thrush, Porthgwarra, 30th October 2013

Two hours after dawn and we were all going through the motions, slowly accepting that the bird had gone. Then, as if by magic, up it popped - and what a cracker it was! Though it could disappear for extended periods, we enjoyed some stunning views, although it was almost always obscured hence the ropey shots. The bottom pic was taken through a load of grasses and twigs hence the slightly hazed look.

Hit and run

First-winter Cape May Warbler, Baltasound (Unst), 24th October 2013

One hour on Unst yesterday, perfect timing with the Cape May Warbler refound as we arrived. Half an hour of blinding views as it hopped about on the ground just a few metres away. Great pilot, great team. Twitching in Britain at its best!

South Coast Semi

First-winter Semipalmated Plover along Hayling seafront, 20th October

Not really a bird to poke a 400mm lens at, the closest we had it was about 25 metres. After hearing it call once at Black Point just before the entire flock flew off, we relocated the bird along the beach at Hayling seafront where it showed reasonably well in windy conditions. A subtle and challenging bird that showed the suite of features you'd want to see (though admittedly I couldn't see the semipalmations on the views I had), and a welcome grip-back just 75 miles from home - I never bothered attempting to see either last year's Hebridean bird or the Kerry bird of 2011.

My guess is that three in three years is just the beginning of a new-found regularity that will see British & Irish records occur much more frequently in the coming years, but only time will tell.

Past couple of days...

The past 48 hours have had their ups and downs but boy, have we seen some good birds. Yesterday started well with a group of Finns calling a [Common] Buzzard above Do Vinte. I saw the bird a few minutes later and it was clear that wasn't what it was - long-winged, very dark underparts - it had to be a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk! Sadly the bird quickly disappeared northwards and consequently I disappeared in to the depths of Poco d'Agua.

D'Agua was very still, and I amused myself with various juvenile Cory's Shearwaters in their burrows before being distracted by what I'm fairly sure was a Yellow Warbler. It didn't find the lower parts of the valley to its liking, though, and I lost it a few minutes later without getting a clear view. I moved on, working the entirety of the valley to the top and was soon alerted to the Hawk flying high above Pico. It was bloody high and seemed to be making an attempt to reach the caldeira, but failed on numerous attempts over the next thirty minutes. Eventually, after chasing it up and down the caldeira road trying to get some decent photos, I finally had some good views between Lapa and Da Ponte. I've got a reasonable series of shots of this fantastic bird, which is (I think) only the second dark morph - and therefore definite sanctijohannis - Rough-leg to be seen in Europe.

Juvenile Rough-legged Hawk, Corvo, 14th October 2013

On the way down there appeared to be some scrambled message about the Black-throated Blue being relocated in Cantinho, but this was dismissed by the original finder (and perhaps one or two others), so I headed down to the main road where I bumped in to Graeme, Chris, Tom and David. David and I hung back waiting for the hawk to reappear while the others started heading down to the village. A great stroke of luck came as we approached Lapa only to hear Graeme radio that they'd just found a Philadelphia Vireo just below the road there! The bird showed fantastically well for the next 45 minutes or so before it moved down in to the valley and we all headed back down to the village.

For once, a showy Philadelphia Vireo.

Sipping a coffee at the Bandits a little while later came the gut-wrenching news that the Black-throated Blue relocation was true after all. Five of us rushed up there in the taxi but by that point everyone else had left Cantinho, the light was going and unsurprisingly our search drew a blank. As such the day really ended on an unnecessarily sour note given that we'd seen some great birds during the day.


Fortunately, the sour grapes didn't last long this morning as the Black-throated Blue was seen very well on numerous occasions this morning, often feeding just metres away on the ground(!). A stunning bird, the blue was really brought to life on odd occasion sunlight penetrated low enough to the forest floor and illuminated the colours. Simply amazing - one of my dream birds.

 Monster Black-throated Blue, lurking in the dark depths of Cantinho.

Eventually hauled myself out of Cantinho early afternoon and slowly ambled back towards the village - distant views of the Rough-legged Hawk up towards the caldeira and a Peregrine passing offshore were the only distractions.

Back in the village, a quick search for the elusive Yellowthroat in pretty windy conditions proved fruitless. After a half-hour rest in the guesthouse, I hit the fields but news then broke that the Polish team had discovered an American Robin on the slopes of the caldeira! An uncontrollable and unnecessary urge to twitch overcame me so I met up with David and a few others to get a taxi up there. Just as the taxi arrived, the Mourning Dove was relocated in its favoured spot in the village so we quickly stopped off there to see it. Porning it, as they usually do, and seemingly unfazed by the cat sat five metres away - ominous stuff! We got up to the caldeira road only to find the robin hadn't been seen for some time, so we came back down to the village for seconds of the dove. The Peregrine flew over as it showed, and that concluded another fine day on Corvo...

Westerlies for the rest of the week. There should be more new birds before I leave on Friday, and probably afterwards too. Hopefully there won't be a repeat of last year's Caspian Plover/Prairie Warbler fiasco.

Did you Ce-dar Waxwing?

Awful pun, I know, but a bloody brilliant bird. Both Pierre and I overslept this morning and consequently missed the second taxi up to the ribeiras, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Just as we were donning our boots, Phil Abbott radioed in that he'd flushed a large, yellowish bunting-type bird which had descended in to the middle fields, so we popped up there to help the search. Splitting up to walk the fields, Vincent and I soon noticed Pierre getting pretty animated behind us. And then it transpired that a small brownish blob sat just a few metres away from him was a first-winter Cedar Waxwing...! Bloody hell!

With the news broadcast, we settled in to photograph the bird. Although mobile at times (and heard to call on several occasions!), the bird spent most of the time sitting around closing its eyes, looking exhausted. Perhaps due to tiredness, it proved pretty fearless (though occasionally fed on berries just a few metres from us) and naturally posed for some great photos.

Soon after, a shout went up for a tanager which transpired to be a Bobolink once it was pinned down - no doubt the original bird Phil had seen earlier in the morning. Many of the assembled crowd then spread out the fields, while some of us - including myself - went up the valleys. While on the way up, Lars Mortensen discovered a Common Yellowthroat near the Bobolink spot - clearly, for whatever reason, there had been a good arrival of birds and confidence was high for further discoveries.

I started off by walking up to the top of Poco d'Agua from the middle road. The gradient here is pretty intense and as such the birding can be quite difficult. I had nothing in the more wooded areas but, in the junipers near the very top, I saw a bird shoot past me with a pale underside - on split second views, it looked like a vireo but I couldn't say for sure. Then it popped up on a bush fifty metres away - nice stripy face, green upperparts - fuck yeah! Red-eyed Vireo! OK, so the commonest passerine to occur here but importantly the duck is now broken. It proved pretty mobile and elusive, though I did manage a couple of record shots for documentation.

The rest of the day proved fruitless as I worked the top of Da Ponte, Lapa above the road, the reservoir slopes and finally the 'Tennessee Valley' before descending back in to the village. Long, tiring day but some great birds.

Good Corvo times...

Had a really good day today. After toiling around Cantinho and Fojo in the morning and not seeing a lot (no sound of the wood-warbler heard yesterday), I ambled down to the picnic area and had decent views of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak there. By this point, it was mid-afternoon and I joined a team heading to the Lighthouse Valley, including newly-arrived Julien Mazenauer. The Black-and-white Warbler was on show in its usual spot and allowed for some photographs to be taken:

Then it was back to Fojo, where we received word that the Rose-breasted Grosbeak was returning to a large piece of fallen corn to feed. It took about 45 minutes to show and, in the meantime, a mobile Indigo Bunting was seen and heard zipping around, and a couple of showers ensured we were soaked. That said, it was well worth the wait when the grosbeak finally showed. A completely fearless bird, it came down to the corn at a distance of five metres and afforded us some astounding views: