Hi Jenny
no luck in spotting your bird I am afraid. There were very few gulls (only
four) and none that were a candidate. I will go back this afternoon when
the tide will be lower and see what there is.
Gary
2009/11/13 jenny spry <>
> Hi Adrian,
>
> Thanks for your input and yes, I do hope that the bird moves south to
> Broome
>
> In fairness to the bird and the watchers I feel I have been too general in
> my comments about the dorsal features seen on the wing of the bird. These
> features are what caught my attention, after all.
>
> So, the details of the primaries and secondaries for their visible length
> beyond the covets are:
>
> 1/ The first primary was wholly black for 100% of its visible length
>
> 2/ The second primary was wholly black for 100% of its visible length
>
> 3/ The third primary was wholly black for approx 90% of its visible length
>
> 4/ Further primaries reduced successively to the last, being approx 30%
> being black.
>
> The result was a parabolic curve being created from the first primary to
> the last with no white windows or flecking visible within the black.
>
> 5/ The secondary feathers were all black from the outer edge of the feather
> for approximately 30% of their visible length. The result was that the black
> outer wing edge continued as black band the same width from the last primary
> to the innermost secondary.
>
> 6/ The colour of the outer wing edge was black, not brown, and there was no
> white within it.
>
> 7/ The coverts were grey with no visible brown speckling, neither when the
> wing was open nor when it was closed against the body.
>
> 8/ The line of demarcation between the black and grey on the wing was
> sharp, not gradual. It was as though it had been drawn with a sharp pen.
>
> Adrian, you mentioned eye colour. This was definitely dark or black.
>
> Regarding the local Silver Gull being a different race, I had read this and
> was not surprised when the change was made. To my ear the WA Silver Gulls
> even have an accent different to our eastern ones. They seem to have touch
> of Hartlaub’s Gull to their call.
>
> Is it a Silver Gull? Quite possibly and I will not object if that is the
> final conclusion drawn. Is it a Brown-headed? I think that there is a good
> chance that it is, so I have decided to do a BARC report for it after all.
> At worst this will mean that there is a full documented report on record
> should any acceptable/photographable Brown-headed Gull turn up in future.
>
> Thanks again to you all for your time and input
>
> Cheers
>
> Jenny
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 12:35 PM, Adrian Boyle <
> > wrote:
>
>> Hi Jenny
>>
>> Hopefully your Gull will fly down to Broome.
>>
>> I just had a few questions/points to make.
>>
>> You mention that you felt the bird looked a bit like an adult Silver Gull.
>> An adult Silver Gull should have a white eye and red bill.
>>
>> It takes 3 years for gulls to reach adult plumage so a second year bird
>> would have lost all the Juv brown back plumage but still retains dark bill
>> and eye.
>>
>> The other thing that i was going to poing out is that the gull up here are
>> a different race to gulls down south and on the east coast. The white
>> pannels in the primaries are much smaller and are only present in the outer
>> 3? unlike the east coast birds that have it in the outer 5? so it does make
>> them have much less white it the wing.
>>
>> Anyway hopefully Gary maybe able to refind it if he heads up that way.
>>
>> Cheers Adrian
>>
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