www.gull-research.org

Does this strike you as a graellsii?

http://www.israbirding.com/israelbirdsf ... hp?id=1170

JanJ

hi jan,

m first impression, especially looking at the head, was of a small female michahellis with shortish legs, but then, primary moult is late (p9 seems to be not fully grown) which would better suit a graellsii. somehow the combination of bright yellow legs and concentration of fine streaking around eye does not look right for graellsii (while i'm fully aware of variation in moult timing, leg colour and striation in LBBG...)
unfortunately no open wing photo - to eliminate e.g. barabensis ...

lou

I got the pictures earlier in the process and opted michahellis.
Looking again, I still think so.
A female, yes, but definitely not a graellsii!
Late timing of moult suggests a northern bird..

Theo

P8 fully grown, P9 at the length of P7. Date 30 October.
We scored micha's at Etaples, NW France, most birds from S France origin probably (but also Swiss, Italian), based on the rings we have seen there.
See this section to view results of that scoring (scroll down to TABLES:

http://www.gull-research.org/ylgadsubad ... 6cyoct.htm

Copy this table here makes no sense...

Conclusion: by 25 Oct, P9 longer than P8 was the most common score... But P8 f.g. was possible


michahellis adult: score of fully grown new primaries, 2002 Pas-de-Calais (Etaples - Boulogne sur Mer, NW France, 50.43N-01.37E.
. P7 new P8 new P9 new P10 new m = n = SD =
04 Oct 6 105 3 - 7.9 115 0.54
05 Oct 2 54 8 - 8.0 65 0.74
24 Oct - 5 18 9 9.1 32 0.66
25 Oct - 1 23 13 9.3 37 0.53
Notes:
- adults identified by primary covert pattern, bare part coloration and wing-tip pattern.
- fully grown primary: the longest primary in the folded wing, visibly exceeding the previous primary.

Conclusion, moult score for the Israel michahellis is well within normal range.
Just three swedish michahellis to illustrate range at this time of year:

http://www.artportalen.se/birds/gallery ... eid=175339

http://www.artportalen.se/birds/gallery ... eID=104270

http://www.artportalen.se/birds/gallery ... geID=21108

JanJ