Thanks to Inger & John for their replies
Re Jaeger – apart from size (see below) the
guides all seem to indicate that even in dark morphs the Jaegers have paler
patches above and/or below the wings which I am sure I would have noticed. There
were certainly no extended tail feathers although I believe they can be absent.
I have seen what I thought to be an Arctic Jaeger just offshore in windy
conditions in the past. It was harassing a Crested Tern and of similar size
with markings that match a light morph AJ
Re size – I got so focussed on the bird itself
that I didn’t do a direct comparison with the gulls through binoculars.
However with the naked eye the bird was just a barely visible spot whereas the
gulls were quite obvious. The white of the gulls could confuse that but the
bird in question was nowhere near the size of a shearwater or larger tern which
would have been very obvious in the light/conditions. Even with 10x binos I
couldn’t make out much detail of head and bill as they were too small.
Thanks again for your help
Regards Rex
