A noticeable increase in Common gulls around at the moment, especially in the evening harbour roost but also at Shakey beach. Among them a 2nd Winter heinei – A subspecies I’ve looked for for ages and have seen many lookalikes and ‘almosts’.
The bird shows one of the diagnostic primary patterns and in conjunction with limited head streaking contrasting against a nice boa of fine neck streaks and a brighter bill. Darker mantle tone along with a long winged appearance and flight style plus dark marks on the outer greater coverts, all indicative of heinei.
A bird showing a P9 mirror that extends onto the outer web must also show a black band on p4 and no white tongue tip to p7.
Im sure Russian common gulls are present in winter in larger numbers than we think and February is a good time to look at common gulls as numbers build so i will put some effort into looking at them and perhaps see another before spring.
PERDIX BIRDER 