danube delta, romania

[lou bertalan]

first an ad female in the lagoon near sacalin (where 20+ ichtyaetus where present!)

on lake puiu a zebra 2cy accompagnied a white pelican,

then there is one more 2cy and three 4+ types (1 male and prob. 2 females, one of the females prob. a 4cy) resting.
note heavy markings on coverts in the 2cy - very micha-like but i still think these are all caspians.

[lou bertalan]

maybe not the best idea but i thought i'd post them here first before loading them up to my site. anyway - again some well marked juvenile caspians, none with ring.

6147-6161 prob. all of the same male, note axill. pattern.
6093-6133 maybe also only one ind., at the danube.

[lou bertalan]

some more.

6182 with black rhombic 2nd gen scaps.
6177 an advanced and worn bird.
last 3 pics of a 2cy with growing p9 and p10.

[JanJ]

Interesting last section Lou!
Can some of thse darker (mainly underwing) be barabensis?
Of course counting in the possible variable cachinnans, eastern or anything else.

Jan

[lou bertalan]

Interesting last section Lou!
Can some of thse darker (mainly underwing) be barabensis?
Of course counting in the possible variable cachinnans, eastern or anything else.

Jan

my feeling says these are juvs from closeby, jan. i think we should think in the direction that many ponticus look like this. barabensis would be nice but i think these are all large black sea birds, although we had many ind. discussed in earlier days that showed characters of eastern cachs.

cheers to Öland

[lou bertalan]

two 4cy and some juvs resting
note the adult in 6197 with clear yellow legs (in sept) and striation concentrated around eye. moult gap p8/9

[lou bertalan]

hi

i'll start a series on male caspians here from the recent trip to the delta. we saw 3 ad and one 2cy ichtyaetus, 2 baltics (among which a 3-day-or-longer-stayer 3cy? in tulcea, not photographed.) wheather was a strong limiting factor for watching and taking pics (and a large group...) so i wasn't able to take pics of many ind. and esp. better ones(!) as i'd have wanted. strong 'arctic' winds rather limited much of migration too, in spite of this some larids and sternids where actively migrating.

1st. on first view a nice normal caspian male with all dimensions exaggerated: bill (quite normal), large p10 and p9 mirrors, legs, extended oribital in front of eye...

5 2011.05.07 danube delta caraorman lb 7376 - Kopie.JPG (192.37KiB)Viewed 33888 times

it's "prey" is also large

5 2011.05.07 danube delta caraorman lb 7379 - Kopie.JPG (187.4KiB)Viewed 33888 times

taking flight, p5 marks out of focus...

5 2011.05.07 danube delta caraorman lb 7380 - Kopie.JPG (202.71KiB)Viewed 33888 times

extended orbital:

5 2011.05.07 danube delta caraorman lb 7381 - Kopie.JPG (137.22KiB)Viewed 33888 times

and voilá: it's one of the assymetric incomplete p5 - guys roaming the delta.:

5 2011.05.07 danube delta caraorman lb 7382 - Kopie.JPG (114.6KiB)Viewed 33888 times

cheers,

some monster males are waiting..

lou

[lou bertalan]

hi again,

this series is basically about male caspians since now, at breeding time, almost no adult females are visible among the birds roaming the channels and branches inside the delta.
some more:

a bird with obvious bare skin (or staining?) around bill base - appart from having fed i think head moult has started. bill is very typical for adult male cach in being long, parallel edged and having a marked but not really 'hanging' gonys. note extended orbital in front of the eye

5 2011.05.06 dd sontea-canal lb 7245 - Kopie.JPG (109.04KiB)Viewed 33872 times

this one has a clearly hanging gonys and bill looks a bit shorter than average

5 2011.05.06 dd sontea-canal lb 7291 - Kopie.JPG (79.5KiB)Viewed 33872 times

some have a more obvious concave bow between bill base and gonys on lower mandible like this bird and the previous one. still, culmen of upper mandible is more or less straight
(whole bird with a nice curved "W" as p5 mark here: http://lou.bertalan.de/gulls/pic/vh/up_1000.jpg)

5 2011.05.07 danube delta caraorman lb 7389 ff.jpg (93.43KiB)Viewed 33872 times

all the rubbish caspian pics from the recent trip are uploaded now: http://lou.bertalan.de/gulls/m_newest.php

cheers,

lou

[lou bertalan]

a heavy boy with strong bill, a narrow conenction between p9 mirror and tip and an interrupted p5 mark:

5 2011.05.07 danube delta caraorman lb 7426 - Kopie.JPG (102.48KiB)Viewed 33872 times

another brute. watch this bill...

5 2011.05.07 danube delta caraorman lb 7464 - Kopie.JPG (108.63KiB)Viewed 33872 times

more or less normal guy. note head moult visible around eye and bill base:

5 2011.05.07 danube delta caraorman lb 7473 - Kopie.JPG (79.04KiB)Viewed 33872 times

as seen in most of these breeding plumaged (alternate) males, red orbital is swollen and extended in front of the eye. i have read this is more a feature of michahellis but evidence is against it...


one more about males to follow.

[lou bertalan]

another strong male. black mark on both mandibles.

5 2011.05.07 danube delta crisan lb 7478 - Kopie.JPG (135.31KiB)Viewed 33872 times

a short and high bill with less curvature of upper mandible at tip

5 2011.05.07 danube delta crisan lb 7489 - Kopie.JPG (89.8KiB)Viewed 33872 times

and finally the only female type? i've photographed, with a fairly pronounced gonys for a female. orbital not extended.

5 2011.05.08 dd mila23-crisan lb 7537 - Kopie.JPG (79.37KiB)Viewed 33872 times