the early moults of Black-headed Gulls (again!)

to run a blog on gulls, you do have to be  a bit obsessional. And it's probably fair to say I have been a bit obsessional over seeing summer-plumaged Black-headed Gulls in February! Wellm you'll all be excessively pleases to know I saw another in Stratford-upon Avon over school half-term! Basically, between 1-5% of Black-headed have full summer plumage before the end of February, making them regular but still unusual, and when you're stuck away from a landfill, sewage farm, reservoir or coast and in the middle of some horrible corner of suburbia, they can be one of the few reminders of the wonderful world of gulls, which is why I love them dearly!

(Black-headed Gull, © Michael Booker)

I thought my first date of 13 February was impressive, but then I found this photo on a friend's blog, and discovered I'd been beaten by two weeks! Michael Booker took this photo on 28 January in Hampshire. To see more of his photos and his blog click on his name above or go to the 'photographers' page on the right-hand side. 

In other BREAKING NEWS, I've just heard of a potential first Caspian Gull for Wales. The main surprise is that it's the first Caspian Gull for Wales! On a quick google search I found one other report from 13 Oct 2011, though as no photo was taken the finder did not, I believe, submit a description. I find it bizarre that Caspian Gull should be so rare in Wales, but then again many areas are underwatched and birds must surely be overlooked. I'll be interested to hear the fate of this bird...

Caspian Gull (larus cachinnans) - Seaton Common - January 2012

All photographs on this post unless otherwise stated are copyright of Mark Newsome and may not be reused unless permission is granted. The photos show a first-winter Caspian Gull at Seaton Common, Durham (Cleveland).

(Caspian Gull - © Mark Newsome)

The white head and underbody with barely any visible markings it obvious here, also note the shawl effect on the nape of this bird which then bleeds partly onto the birds mantle. The small beady eye is evident and a small dark mask is also present encircling they eye. The grey mantle feathers with dark centres are obvious in this photo and this feature is particularly useful to look out for when trying to pick out a first-winter Caspian Gull. Finally the long and obvious parallel sided bill is evident in this image; compare this to the bill on the (presumed 2nd winter?) Herring Gull behind the Caspian.

 (Caspian Gull - © Mark Newsome)

You can see that in flight it shows a white head with small dark eye, the shawl effect on the nape can be seen quite well in this high quality image. The axillaries look greyish/white, but this feature is very variable in Caspian Gull and some can show brownish axillaries. 

(Caspian Gull - © Mark Newsome)

Compare to the above image and it can be seen how a birds axillaries can change in the field depending upon lighting conditions. But note the very white head, with black beady eye set far forward in the head and the shawl like pattern on the birds neck extending down onto top of mantle.

(Caspian Gull - © Mark Newsome)

You can clearly see the broad and solidly black terminal band on the tail contrasting with the fairly sparsely marked rump/uppertail coverts. Nice contrast between the secondaries and the much paler coverts which creates clear cut black and brown areas on the birds upperwing.  Also you can see the grey mantle and scapular feathers with dark centres creating a fairly distinctive appearance. Overall first-winter Caspian Gulls are usually four coloured; white, brown, black, and grey. This is particularly evident when a bird is on the deck, compare this to Herring Gulls which can often look less well defined and don't usually show such a sharp contrast throughout the whole plumage at this age.