G'day,
The suggestions given to Mark about gull and tern identification cover
just about all angles. However, Bob Inglis is correct in suggesting in
that many of these references are more applicable to northern hemisphere
species, although you can get clues and try to extrapolate. Hopefully
HANZAB will provide Mark with most of the answers.
The shortcoming of a typical field guide is that there is just not
enough room to illustrate how a particular species moults its feather
tracts on a monthly (weekly/daily?) basis. This is where expert
knowledge comes in, often arriving from the researcher, who has studied
a species closely over a period of time, or the artist, who has had to
look carefully at what is being depicted. As a layman, I have found it
useful to keep in mind that a species somehow has to get from the
illustrated non-breeding version to the pristine breeding model - and,
with a Common Tern for example, it doesn't drop its carpal bar
overnight, or suddenly emerge one morning boasting a fully black cap!
Russell has mentioned my booklet "Shorebirds, Gulls & Terns of Coastal
SEQ". This is obviously a wonderful booklet (!!) but does not address
the intricacies of plumage other than the most basic non-breeding and
breeding plumage. Russell also asks if I can suggest where to get a
copy. In fact this booklet was, in part, financed by four councils in
SEQ and has been distributed free-of-charge. Each individual council has
its own distribution strategy so I cannot be of much help there. It was
intended to be given to residents of SEQ, and visitors to the region, to
inspire an appreciation of shorebirds, etc., rather than be made widely
available but a free pdf of the booklet can be downloaded from my
website, www.sunbittern.com by visiting the Publications page.
Incidentally, after an initial print run last year of 12,000, a further
6,000 copies were printed two months later. I just had to say that. I
should also say that a companion booklet, "Waterbirds & Raptors of
Coastal SEQ" is due for publication this May.
This leads me to a question. Russell has said that he cannot find an
ISBN, which is because there isn't one. Can anyone out there comment on
whether there should be one for this sort of publication? I thought that
as it was never going to be sold, so never to be available in a
bookshop, and never to be available in a library, other than as a free
offering on the front counter, it would not need such a reference number.
Cheers - Trevor Ford
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