Hi All,
Yet another posting on the Franklin's gull. As already stated by others yes it
was there last night (Tuesday). Summary is it has been seen every evening in
the vicinity of the Little River mouth since being found by Maarten Hulzebosch
on Saturday. Bob Swindley also saw it briefly around midday Tuesday in the same
area but it soon moved off. This is the first twitchable Franklin's Gull for
Victoria although there have been a few sightings in recent years.
The bird is definitely a Franklin's gull. I suspect the main reason for some of
the confusion that has been circulating is that it appears to a be a second
winter bird with worn primaries. In younger birds the white tips to the
primaries are quite small, whereas in adults these white tips are a prominent
feature. To make it even harder most of the white, in what were already small
white primary tips, has been abraded to leave just tiny wedges of white.
In adults there is also a prominent white bar across the primaries behind the
black triangle in the end of the spread wing. It is absent in this bird (as
happens in some second year birds) giving the wing a more uniform black and
grey appearance, perhaps more reminiscent of a winter Laughing Gull. Despite
this the finer detail of wing pattern remains entirely consistent with a
Franklin's Gull and is inconsistent with a Laughing Gull. All the other
characters mentioned in an earlier email that identify this bird as a
Franklin's remain relevant.
The bird's in active moult with two fresh primaries so I guess it has now
commenced its moult into second summer (breeding) plumage and when that's
complete (in a couple of months) it should be indistinguishable from other
older breeding adults.
I've posted a couple of images on the Australian Bird Image Database that were
taken on Tuesday night. They are of the bird in flight and show most details
well.
http://www.aviceda.org/abid/newimages.php
Cheers
Rohan
Dr Rohan Clarke
Threatened Mallee Bird Project
Zoology Department
La Trobe University
Bundoora 3086
Ph: 03 9479 1672 Mobile 0408 947001
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