intermedius from northern Norway

Post Reply
User avatar
pim wolf
Posts:33
Joined:Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:26 pm
intermedius from northern Norway

Post by pim wolf » Sat Oct 17, 2009 10:45 am

hi all,

after the two recent observations of colour-ringed "Norwegian fuscus" at Westkapelle (black J030 and J781, ringing locations copied below) I did a quick search of my database to see if any other northern Norwegian birds had been seen at Westkapelle. As it turns out I have seen another one and it's from even further up north. J005 was ringed as a 5cy+ intermedius on Bjarkøy, Troms and seen by me at Westkapelle on 15 October 2008. From the ringing details on http://www.ringmerking.no it is not clear if this bird was caught on a nest or on a rubbish tip but the ringing date of 20 June surely does suggest a breeding bird. In the field this bird was not suspected to be anything but an intermedius, both it's build and the dark grey back/wings fitted nicely with what I would expect from an intermedius. Looking at the moult of this bird things start to shift a little; p1-2 fresh, p3 dropped or growing, p4-10 old. A moult schedule more in line with fuscus I would guess. As it turned out I took some record shots of this bird and I've included slightly edited versions of these below. If I interpret my own pictures correctly this is a surprisingly late moulting bird, but it's probably very normal for a bird that has to migrate 2064 km in a straight line to get to Westkapelle. I'm sure Mars has a few more examples?


Image

Image

Image



ringing sites
J005; Husholmen Froholman, Bjarkøy, Troms, Norway 69°03'11"N 016°20'00"E
J030; E Lislandholmen, Nordhorsvær, Sømna, Nordland, Norway 65°19'24"N 011°36'33"E
J781; B Buholmen, Sørhorsvær, Sømna, Nordland, Norway 65°18'26"N 011°37'30"E

User avatar
pim wolf
Posts:33
Joined:Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:26 pm

Re: intermedius from northern Norway

Post by pim wolf » Sat Oct 17, 2009 1:53 pm

Nils Helge Lorentzen just confirmed that it was ringed as an adult on the nest,

regards, pim

Hi Pim

Black J005 was caught on the nest! All up in northern Norway that has been ringed as adults has been caught on nest.
They very hard to catch in other ways in Northern Norway.

All the best

Nils

Ruud Altenburg
Posts:248
Joined:Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:58 pm

Re: intermedius from northern Norway

Post by Ruud Altenburg » Sat Oct 17, 2009 3:04 pm

J941: Svarthellaren, Loppa, Finnmark, Norway 70°21'30"N 021°23'54"E

IJmuiden, 02-09-07. You have seen this one on month later at Westkapelle Pim!
Attachments
DSCN7655.jpg
DSCN7655.jpg (210.61KiB)Viewed 6522 times

Ruud Altenburg
Posts:248
Joined:Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:58 pm

Re: intermedius from northern Norway

Post by Ruud Altenburg » Sat Oct 17, 2009 3:11 pm

J5V1: Heimlaukøya Lemmingsvær, Tranøy, Troms, Norway 69°01'36"N 016°52'35"E

Pictures 27-10-07 and 24-05-08, Amsterdam.
Attachments
DSCN1151.jpg
DSCN1151.jpg (315.62KiB)Viewed 6522 times
DSCN8185.jpg
DSCN8185.jpg (323.96KiB)Viewed 6522 times

Ruud Altenburg
Posts:248
Joined:Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:58 pm

Re: intermedius from northern Norway

Post by Ruud Altenburg » Sat Oct 17, 2009 3:13 pm

JJ6S: Napp, Flakstad, Nordland, Norway 68°08'00"N 013°27'00"E

Amsterdam, 28-05-06.
Attachments
DSCN6710.jpg
DSCN6710.jpg (321.89KiB)Viewed 6522 times

User avatar
pim wolf
Posts:33
Joined:Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:26 pm

Re: intermedius from northern Norway

Post by pim wolf » Sat Oct 17, 2009 4:10 pm

and this one, even more northerly from Matmorstua, Loppa, Finnmark, Norway at 70°21'14"N 021°25'36"E.

Image

User avatar
marsmuusse
Posts:666
Joined:Sun Sep 27, 2009 12:43 pm

Re: intermedius from northern Norway

Post by marsmuusse » Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:22 pm

Here, I will copy a mail from Morten Helberg and the answer I sent him, a few years ago. I changed the link to the current webpage.

Maandag, September 16, 2002 5:18 pm
Hi Mars
I showed you some pictures in IGM in Finland of some light-mantled fuscus gulls
i ringed in Northern Norway this summer. I ringed 11 birds at he island, 6 of
them was very light mantled. Any idea of subspecies? Good for graellsii with
white between the black and grey on primaries? The pictures is taken on
Nordfugløy at 24th of june.
Morten
=====
Morten Helberg
Olastien 8-309
9012 Tromsø
j6n1-1.jpg
j6n1-1.jpg (62.3KiB)Viewed 6519 times
j6n1-2.jpg
j6n1-2.jpg (75.18KiB)Viewed 6519 times
Maandag, September 16, 2002 5:21 pm
Hi again
Also, in another colony, Lemmingvær in western Troms, this is the darkest
fuscus bird i had.... Very nice!
Morten
=====
Morten Helberg
Olastien 8-309
9012 Tromsø
jm88-1.jpg
jm88-1.jpg (87.04KiB)Viewed 6519 times
jm88-2.jpg
jm88-2.jpg (88.14KiB)Viewed 6519 times


20 October 2002
Hi Morten,

I didn’t answer your mail properly yet, and many apologies for that. Thanks a lot for sending the scanned images of these interesting gulls. Of course it’s most interesting and challenging to find out how the forms intermedius, greallsii, heuglini and fuscus increase and decrease their distribution area in Europe. Unfortunately, this is a fairly misty picture for me.
So far, the research done by the late Edvard Barth is, I think, still the most widespread survey of Lesser Black-backed Gull (LBbG) forms in Europe. His work was done in an extraordinary way, set up in such a way, that from a scientific perspective he seemed to have calculated all possible problems on forehand and ended up with a machine measuring darkness of mantle coloration and chroma notation. I can’t think of any person using such a machine at present or even owning such a machine. There has been only one minor disadvantage in Barth’s research: the limited individuals collected from some locations (e.g. Denmark, Netherlands). In due time, I will put a summary, with figures, of Barth research on the website http://www.gull-research.org/fuscus/05cyaugustus.htm

It’s not said we cannot reproduce such a research in the field. I think the basic idea of measuring chroma notation would be very difficult, but measuring darkness of mantle colour must be possible. Best thing to do is, when we are catching adult birds, making pictures of every caught bird including one picture where a Kodak grey-scale is present in the same picture as the bird. Preferably, the grey tone should be read in the field as well, and written down just as the other measurements. Problem is: ringers need to have a grey scale with them all the time and have to remember to photograph adult birds with the grey scale.
Still, on population level, it’s not a representative measurement yet, as the ringers need to calculate if the birds they have caught are “an average of the colony”, or better, they should catch bird “randomly” (thus, not only the very pale or very dark bird).

For next year, I will try to take notice of these things and try to remember to photograph the Kodak grey-scale as well (something I always forget in all the excitement!). A long story before answering your question…

So, is it a heuglini or is it an intermedius? To be honest with you, I can’t tell. Seen pretty some heuglini in winter in the Arabian Gulf, I would say some birds can be distinguished from intermedius / graellsii on general appearance (jizz) and in some cases on the late moult in the primaries. The problem is: the variation in graellsii and intermedius is so large, that a vagrant heuglini in our region would probably not recognized and the bird would be documented as an “aberrant graellsii”. Some graellsii may still moult primaries in January (illustrated by research of Peter Stewart in Britain). Some birds may look very slender, small or very bulky, powerful and all variations in between.
Now I’ve seen a few -about 6- (presumed) heuglini in Finland, The picture of heuglini hasn’t improved much, and I still wonder if it’s possible to recognise heuglini in the Netherlands, in case one turns up.
The funny thing is that in Finland, all pale adult birds (heuglini / intermedius) were lacking obvious (broad) pale crescents between the black sub-terminal band and the grey centre. I add two examples:

For P6 crescent see picture 4102: a pale adult bird (heuglini) photographed on August 12 2002 Tampere. Primary moult stage: P3 is new, P4 is growing, P5 is missing, P6-P10 are old. The tail is white, old and all rectrices are present. The old P6 shows the very limited narrow white line above the black sub-terminal band. An identical pattern can be found in quite some graellsii here in the Netherlands and images can be found in all sections of LBbG on ORG.


For P5 crescent see picture 3666: a pale adult bird (heuglini) photographed on August 09 2002 Tampere. Primary moult stage: P1 is new, P2 is growing, P3 is missing, P4-P10 are old. The tail is white, old and all rectrices are present. The old P5 shows the narrow white crescent above the black sub-terminal band, but only in the far corner / curve of the grey. Such a pattern on P5 is very common in graellsii as well.

So I’m not sure about where to fit your images of J6N1, but I can’t see why it should not be intermedius. Do you know of any Norwegian research along the coast between Tarva and Tromsø regarding darkness of upper-parts? Does the intermedius population extend their area northwards?

Remember this is only my personal thought about the white present between the grey inner-web and the black sub-terminal band. I myself am puzzling about the limited black in the central primaries in your bird. We normally find graellsii with black on P5, P4 and quite commonly on P3 as well (to view a wing of what I think is average graellsii): see ORG June.

Your bird has only black on P5 (and a little faint black spot on the far outer-web of P4, but you can hardly count it as “black sub-terminal band on P4”). Is it individual variation or can you find it commonly in heuglini? Again, In Finland, if P4 was present, it contained black. I’m not aware of research on extend or occurrence of this feature in heuglini from the breeding grounds.

So I feel much for trying to copy the research of Barth by using Kodak grey-scales in the field. If it is possible to distribute such Kodak grey-scales between LBbG-ringers in some countries, we can have a more detailed overview of the darkness of LBbG at present, especially in contact zones, and we can maybe construct a theory about the expansion of some sub-species between the 1960’s and year 2000. Would be nice to co-operate on this in Europe I think…

To finish this mail, one other question to you. I received your fuscus JM88, thanks a lot. Last week I saw a LBbG with a ring code much resembling yours: JM79. Did you ring this bird? I’ll send an image as well.

Nice birding, and hopefully to much co-operating in future!

Mars Muusse

NHLore
Posts:14
Joined:Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:03 pm

Re: intermedius from northern Norway

Post by NHLore » Wed Nov 04, 2009 8:17 pm

Hi

Here's a few pix of L.f.fuscus from the breeding colony at Horsvær, Norland, Norway.
Attachments
Lff210609-2G.jpg
Lff210609-2G.jpg (238.2KiB)Viewed 6492 times
Lff170609-2G.jpg
Lff170609-2G.jpg (217.32KiB)Viewed 6492 times
J323-S-210609G.jpg
J323-S-210609G.jpg (121.94KiB)Viewed 6492 times
J149-S-170609G.jpg
J149-S-170609G.jpg (522.76KiB)Viewed 6492 times
J12E-S170609G.jpg
J12E-S170609G.jpg (95.87KiB)Viewed 6492 times
J12E-S170609-2G.jpg
J12E-S170609-2G.jpg (103.63KiB)Viewed 6492 times
J0M6-S-170609G.jpg
J0M6-S-170609G.jpg (477.76KiB)Viewed 6492 times

Post Reply