September Gulling

Back up at Hämeenkyrö this past weekend, which meant the usual visit to Tarastenjärvi.

Things started out well, finding some decent scarce in the form of a Rook.

Yes. A Rook.


As I rounded a bend and presented with a mixed flock of Jackdaw, Raven and Hooded Crow, my attention was immediately drawn to the dark hoodie sized corvid. Result!


Finding birds like this tell me I'm not overlooking things, even when it concerns Irish dross which I could be tempted to ignore. Why am I looking at crows? How else will I find that daurian?

Gulls were a bit tough this time around, lazily loafing on rooftops for a change.

No Caspian this time. It's been a poor season for Tarastenjärvi, with no juvs having turned up yet here (to my knowledge). The best in this regard was a few slightly more interesting Herring juvs.




Baltics were also in lower numbers, many having already made their way south. Nice to see the plumage stage of the few juvs that were still present though.





Juvenile Baltic Gull - this is what I term a "dark morph" bird, in that the new scapulars and mantle feathers are of the wholly dark, black variety.



Birds like this I term pale morph, as the new scapulars and mantle feathers are silvery grey with dark anchors.




Juvenile Baltic Gulls


Juv Baltic Gull - Tail Pattern



Adult Baltic Gulls

2 adult Lesser Black Backed types, typically asleep on the hill, were the best of the rest.


LBB types



This sub-ad LBB type I am forced to leave in the "Haven't a clue" camp.  The very dark upperparts, both in terms of the new grey and old dark coverts, combined with the white underwing, and new, growing P10 with small mirror, is a very odd combo. Comments welcome.

Edit: Some more salvaged photos of the above.



The more I look at this, the more I wonder whether the dark impression is a result of retained dark first year coverts. Compared to the grey tone of the herring to it's right... it's not so dark as I'd originally thought. In which case... would 2nd cal Caspian be a contender? The dark greater covert bar, dark tail and primary pattern would make much more sense in that scenario. The more I look, the more I think this is the case.

Pulling the trigger on this, 2CY Caspian Gull. Or maybe not. 

Migrant action was pretty good on site, with Bluethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Red-Throated and Tree Pipits and numerous Phyloscs all present in the scrub.



Bluethroat - the bizness

Best of the rest was a family of 4 Taiga Bean Geese at Sarkkila, the first migrating beans I've seen so far.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finnish Focus On...Taiga And Tundra Bean Geese

Image
Have been meaning to write a post on Tundra and Taiga Bean Goose identification for a while now. Wildfowl are my guilty pleasure. I've always enjoyed looking for them. The escape issue turns a lot of people off them. Grey geese can turn people off further still. Since moving to Finland, being able to spend long hours in the field watching both types of Bean Goose has been a joy, especially considering how rare they are in Ireland.  Tundra Bean Geese are the far commoner species to occur here, making them the easier to photograph and so a good place to start. Tundra Bean Goose Tundra Bean Goose - careful assessment of structure is most important when identifying bean geese. Whilst there are size differences between the smaller Tundra and larger Taiga, this plays out most obviously in their structure and shape. Both species, rear on, can be extremely difficult to pick apart without the structural clues visible. The head and bill structure are crucial in Bean Goose identification. Thi...
Read more

How To Be A Rarity Finder

Image
A recent statistic popped up in my various social media memories.  To date I've been birding on 4 continents, Europe, Asia, Africa and North America, and found rare birds on each of them. Pretty happy with that. 😎 So thought a post on how to go about finding rarities and importantly, how to BE a rarity finder was worth throwing up. They may sound like the same thing, but I have different views on both. One is methodology. The other is an outlook. Combine the best of both and you will achieve your goals. First up, the Methodology . 1. KNOW YOUR BIRDS This is an obvious one (though people may have different perceptions on what this takes.)  It stands to reason though, that to find a Lesser Yellowlegs as a vagrant, you're going to have to know what a Redshank looks like (in all plumages)...and Greenshank ...and Wood Sandpiper ...and then...just to be really fecking sure... Greater Yellowlegs, Stilt Sandpiper and Marsh Sandpiper too. Lesser Yellowlegs - I've found 6 Lesser...
Read more

Racism and Bigotry in Birding

Image
It's hard to pick up a newspaper these days and not read about something the new moniker "alt-right" are up to. The rise of racism to more mainstream levels is undeniable. Do we, as birders, need to have this discussion though? Do we know it's out there, among us? I'm pretty sure we do. It's tempting to believe the best about yourself, and this extrapolates to ourselves as a group; as birders. It's tempting to believe that the hobby of birding, taking place in nature, with a holistic, interconnected view of nature, would not harbour backwards, ignorant, scumbag neanderthals, that would discriminate on the basis of colour, creed, ethnicity, sex or sexual preference...over the past two years I've learned, sadly, that this temptation would lead you to the wrong conclusion. Birding, like any other microcosm of humanity, has it's share of these regrettable people. When I say over the past two years, I mean, perhaps, I have been just as ...
Read more