The day the sun shone

Where to start? A first winter Ring billed Gull at Barvas was new in, while Whitefronts continued to play hide and seek. 30 Europeans were between Brue and Arnol, while 23 Greenlands were at the latter site.

2 Iceland Gulls were at Arnol (as was a Sparrowhawk) and while on the gull theme, the Stornoway Harbour update is 58 Icelands plus 3 Glaucous. Many birds are looking weak and are surely struggling to feed. Keep feeding them folks! On the Briaghe 7 Icelands cruised about with a single Glaucous, with the bigger surprise being two Pied Wagtails. One has wintered around Tescos this year, but are these really harbingers of spring?

Possibly also on the move was the ‘Icelandic-type’ Redpoll in Brue. Or maybe just the sunshine brought the passerines out to play?

Broad Bays Eider flocks were also at all time short range, enough to esatblish no Kings, Queens, or ‘fairy cakes’ from the north. 29 Slavonian Grebes and 215 Common Scoters all in made for a nice day.

Meeting of White-fronts

The Arnol area of Lewis is a traditional Greenland White-fronts wintering quarter. Today I located 22 birds there in their usual field. Where they get to the rest of the winter is pretty much anyones guess.

But though I was searching for White-fronts, these were not top of the agenda today. Tristan ap Rheinallt saw 32 European White-fronts in the area the day before. Following a small group in Ness earlier in the winter which were the first Lewis records of this ‘form’ of grey goose, and part of an influx into Britain. No sign of this flock today but nearby 4 European White-fronts at Brue Grazings (just to the east of Arnol)

Additionally eight ‘Whitefronts’ in flight at RSPB Loch na Muilne, Arnol, may well have Europeans, but murky drizzle and lack of a ‘cheese and pickle’ guard on my binoculars meant they headed of into the yonder without a solid ID.

On the way home it brightened enough for me to get some shots of the Brue European birds. Note the pale fringing on the upper parts and pink, rather than orange, bill

A very buff 1w Iceland Gull was at Bragar Bay.

Blizzard chat

So what has been been going on with white winged gulls this last few days?

Well an unprecedented influx that’s what. Shetland and the Faroes are loaded, and Stornoway in particular has got in on the act with c.70 birds, while others have dotted all the way across the UK as far as Wales at least.

http://birdingfrontiers.com/2012/01/17/2nd-winter-kumliens-gull/

For a number of years I have been picking up potential Kumlien’s Gulls on Lewis. To me if it has dark pigment markings running along the length of the primaries, no matter how extensive, it falls in the Kumlien’s (kumlieni) camp, rather than Iceland (glaucoides). Thats from a shed load of experience of both plus skin checks, literature etc. Add to that these birds are often heavier chested, in many plumages show dark pigmentation across the tail contrasting with a pale/white rump, and often brighter rose legs. Structurally some are vey close to small Glaucous Gulls.

Posting galleries of images this year seemed the way forward. No excuses, but none of my images are manipulated bar cropping. As the birds are generally white though many are ‘burned out’ and seeing the pigmentation is hard – but it is slightly clearer in the field.

Many gulls in Newfoundland are ‘white winged’ Kumlien’s and Baxter and Gibbins in their Birding World paper (April 2007) flag 62% of birds they saw there as being in a similar pale range to the Stornoway blizzard. There are just three darker ended first years in Stornoway this year, but others have popped up elsewhere.

One mans Iceland is another Kumlien’s, and getting solid views in flat light at very close range is key, but rarely possible.

Many birds are older than first years this time. Of the 63 in Stornoway the other day the breakdown was, in my opinion:
1st year: 9
2nd year: 42
3rd year: 5
Adult: 7

We would normally expect many more first years. Why the number of second years? No idea. What population have they come from? Pass. Whatever, in a British context Kumlien’s Gull has pushed on leaps and bounds since Jimmy Steele nailed that adult at Banff/MacDuff in, was it, 1985? Am I really that old, and can anyone remember how many years it came back for?

Stornoway white gull gallery – January 19th 2012

This is Thursdays gallery

On Friday there were 63 between Goat Island and Stornoway Harbour, plus 12 out on Point (inc 3 on the Braighe), 2 Tolsta, 1 Coll, 2 Barvas, 2 Newmarket. Glaucous gulls at Braigh and Stornoway Harbour.

Lots of other beaches around the islands that woint get checked. There must be hundfreds!

Stornoway white gulls gallery – January 18th 2012

Discussion will follow

Bonaparte’s Gull on Isle of Lewis

A spin around today was always going to produce more Iceland gulls – more on them later – but a surprise was a first year Bonaparte’s Gull at Loch Brannahuie just to the east of Stornoway Airport. Also two juvenile pale bellied Brent Geese there.

Nearby in Broad Bay 2 Velvet Scoter among 90 Commons and 8 Slavonian Grebes.

More images of the Argyll ‘Thayers’ type Gull

From Bill Allan:

“The putative juvenile Thayer’s gull dropped into Dunbeg bay on Tuesday Jan 17th at 14.20 and was still there at 16.00 hours.(1st sighting for 3 weeks but minimal coverage of site)

There have been some negative comments re the tertials being “too pale”…..would have thought the main point is that the tertials contrast with darker primaries as opposed to Kumlien’s gull where the opposite applies or they will be described as concolourous.The tertials look fine to me (dark centred.)

Some pics with other gulls to get some idea of biometrics.”

Winter wings

More bread and another lunchtime drawing in the larids. Iceland or Kumlien’s is always a recurring Stornoway query, or should you just marvel at the wonders of flight?

“nae rolls – just breid”

That was the call from the bakery, so bread it was. Sliced loaf worked well and lured in six Iceland Gulls allowing for a bit of playing around with the DSLR, though the light was pretty grim.

Snowy Owl on Lewis makes it to BBC1 primetime on The One Show