www.gull-research.org

Hello everyone,

Some of you know me, others don't. A quick introduction. The last three years I kind of got infected with the gullwatching virus. A nearby wastedump Barneveld is where it all started. The first winter Glaucous gull was the blame of it all.

Last sunday 22 januari 2012 I found a possible third winter smith at a harbour of Den Oever (DO-bird) in Holland. Beginners luck?? The pictures can be found on my website http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdaddict ... hotostream. Many of the features of a third winter smiths are visible on this DO-bird. But some can be found on northern L. argentatus argentatus. For a positive id I need help with information about third winter L. argentatus argentatus in the northern part of Europe. If anyone has articles or good websites, blogs that would be helpfull.

The id of de DO-bird is based on the following features (with the help of GRO members):
Bulky impression (head en bill shape)
Dark great coverts
Darkbrown markings head, neck, breast, belly etc
black secondaries
broad tailband
dark brown-blackish tertials
dark brown scarf/boa
even banding on the tailcoverts
light grey colour of the mantle

Comments are welcome!

Hi Herman.

Some fine pic you have there. I myself here (http://www.surfbirds.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10238) made suggestions of smithsonianus. However, when Peter Adrianes came along mentioning a couple of features - among those the pattern of p6+p7, the last being a good point, the idea of a possible smithsonianus turned into a European one. Someone also pointed out that the tertial patch was to brownish for a smith, and that it should be blackish/black. but could in fact be brownish in some individuals. Since gulls are extremely variable (inkl smith)- maybe the last isn´t said about this gull? However, PA and others might think otherwise. We are after all dealing with a country first.

JanJ

Hi Jan,

Thanks for your reply. About the colour of the tertials, if you look at the pictures of the article of Mullarney & Lonergan plate 61-66 they look blackish indeed but the DO-bird shows a few blackish and darkbrown tertials. Would this be within the variation? And this bird or this bird shows a brown colour (different age??) on the tertials. It's not the best sample (yet) but it shows the variety that we know of gulls. Same thing probably applies to wingpattern (p6-7). Is it usual to look at this pattern (p6/7) for id-ing a third winter gull?

Do you have info about argentatus from the north (or anywhere but Holland)? That would be helpfull.

cheers

In the same article on plate 68 you see brownish tertials.
The more black pattern appears to be on the one generation older feathers, especially tt 3 and tt 4.
The plain fresh tt on the DO bird, tt1 and 2, are not worrying, this is seen in many birds.

Theo

And when zooming in, the black on p6 (left wing, most advanced) does show a black line running up to the base, along the very edge of the outer web.
And there are bajonet-missing p6 available in smith, so also this point is not worrying to me personally...
P7 can not be used since this primary is not advanced enough in this bird.
There are pale tongues visible up to at least p8.

Theo

The point is, for those who wish to claim this bird as a definite smithsonianus:
just try to find a photograph of a 3w smiths that has such straight, horizontal upper borders to the black pattern on both P6 and P7 (indicated by red lines on photo below).
Note how the pattern is straight all the way from the shaft to the outer edge.

I am pretty sure that it will be difficult to come up with a similar bird. The pattern appears to be genuinely rare in 3w smiths.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1156597924 ... erringGull#

As you may know, we have a small group of people now working on Smithsonianus. I have to dedicate my time to both white-winged birds and smiths recently, but with images of 1cy AHG sent to me today by Dave, the site of smithsonianus will soon be a splendid reference I think!
Have a look and enjoy!

http://gull-research.org/smithsonianus/1cyaugust.html

Mars

The true id of the Den Oever bird is found in a fresh faeces sample. See this link for the id. So close to smithsonianus..., in my opinion but still a Larus argentatus. I've learned a lot the last weeks.