Another long day. Up at 0430 and in the field from 0500
until 1730. Were we rewarded? Not really. Two adult Iceland Gulls, a very early
Rock Pipit, over 50 Glaucous Gulls, finally some satisfying pictures of Steller’s
Eider and another White-billed Diver were the highlights apart from more hybirds and subspecies (see blow). Very surprising was a
complete lack of raptors, not even a single White-tailed Eagle.
| Male Steller's Eider |
| Flock of Steller's Eider |
Viewing conditions were very good with little wind such that
it was easy to see what was on the sea and also good light for studying the
birds. We spent most time on gulls particularly the two sand beaches near
Svartnes (on the mainland looking over to Vardø) where streams provide fresh
water for bathing/preening gulls. There is much movement of gulls here with
many hundreds of gulls passing through. At any one time there were around 400
Herrings Gulls with upto 20 Glaucous Gulls. By looking at the ages of the
Glaucous Gulls present at any one time it was easy to see that there was much
movement of birds. It was here we faced our most interesting identification
challenges.
Firstly with a couple of adult Common Gulls one of which we was
ringed and we had first seen on Vardø. The ringed bird at least was a very good
candidate for Heinei with a pale iris, long yellow bill and yellow legs. It also
looked different to normal Common Gulls with a bit of Ring-billed Gull look
about it. The other bird had a dark eye and a more normal jizz but did also
have noticeably yellow bill and legs.
| Adult Common Gull showing characters of Russian subspecies Heinei. Although the eye looks dark in this picture it was pale in real life (see next picture). Also note yellow bill and legs. The white eye lids of this bird helped give it a special appearance |
| Note pale iris visible in this picture |
| 2 adult Common Gulls. The right hand bird which was ringed is shown in the other photos and showed Heinei characters. Notice in this picture it is slightly darker on the wings than the other bird which had a dark eye. |
| Wing pattern of the right-hand bird |
We also spent some time with a 2nd winter gull
that initially looked like a Glaucous but on closer inspection was probably too
dark with a dark tail, dark secondary bar and primaries that were not quite
pale enough. We discussed Glaucous Winged Gull and the bird appeared to have a
dark eye but did not get conclusive views or good photos (see the best below which are hugely cropped) due
to distance and in the end veered towards it perhaps being a hybrid between
Glaucous and Herring.
| Mystery Gull. Hybrid Glaucous x Herring? Dark Glaucous? or something rarer |
Another 3rd winter bird in the flock was also
a probable hybrid but we got no photos of this bird. It was a far more
intermediate bird with a Glaucous like bill, pale grey scapulars, creamy coloured
coverts and tertials and brown primaries. It was also a large bird at the top
end for Herring Gull.
It was interesting looking at the Glaucous Gulls and noting
the large difference in size with some birds smaller than the largest Herring
Gulls and others the size of Great Black-backed. The 2 Iceland Gulls we had we
both very small birds, notably smaller than adjacent Herring Gulls and
therefore likely to be females.
The day ended with a vindaloo in Vadsø – the world’s most
northerly curry house?