Large Gulls

It was raining cats and dogs today but I had a chance for an hour of birding so took it. I hoped that the rain would have brought down some waders but at my first port of call, Maridalsvannet, the water levels were far too high for any waders. A nice surprise was a well grown young Black-throated Diver (storlom) with an adult (the other adult was feeding nearby). The often fluctuating water levels here usually make it difficult for the divers but the wet spring and summer has meant little fluctuation which has been good news for the divers although has meant few waders for me.

At Rolfstangen, Fornebu there were 15 Knot today, an increase of one from two days ago. Also an out of place and probably sick Fulmar sitting on the water. Some good views of the local gulls. A juvenile Lesser Black-blacked Gull (sildemåke) had sat close to an adult Great Black-backed Gull (svartbak) which caused consternation to one of its parents which dive bombed the GBBG for a number of minutes before the youngster decided to fly off to another island.

The young LBBG came far too close to the GBBG for its parent's liking

The local breeders are of the subspecies intermedius and here is a picture of one of the adults. You see that although it is dark on the back that it is still paler than the presumed fuscus I saw in Nordland. It also has a white mirror on P9 and white tips to the outer primaries which were missing on the fuscus.

Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull ssp intermedius

Also a juvenile Herring Gull (gråmåke) and LBBG sat side by side allowing an educational picture to be taken where the subtle differences between these birds can be seen.

Juvenile Herring Gull (left) and juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull (right)

The Herring Gull on the left is slightly larger and pale but the most important difference is on the tertials which in the LBBG are dark with a pale edge whereas in the Herring Gull are a creamy brown with the pale edges jaggedly intruding into the darker centres.

Driving home I had my first Nutcracker of the autumn flying over the road. Soon they will appear in the garden to eat hazel nuts.

Photos from Nordland

Here are a selection of photos from around Bodø and Værøy.

11:55pm looking north from Værøy- the sun shines strongly

midnight. The sun sets (real midnight sun is restricted to a few days at the end of June at this latitude)

First some of the different Lesser Black-backed Gulls (sildemåke). First off, the fuscus from Valnes, notice the dark wings without any real border to the black wing tips.

presumed fuscus Lesser Black-backed Gull

presumed fuscus Lesser Black-backed Gull - notice how the light can change the appearance of the upperparts

Some from Værøy:

A fairly easy graellsii

An obvious graellsii in the middle with a Herring Gull (gråmåke) on the right and a darker LBBG on the left which I take to be an intermedius.

A difficult bird which could be dark graellsii or pale intermedius.

Another difficult bird which was quite small and cute so probably a female. The flight shot shows significant contract between the wing and wing tips so this is a graellsii I reckon. Also the photo was taken at 10pm so the grey back probably looked darker than it would have looked in the middle of the day.

I’ve read that the intermedius types in northern Norway might be the result of hybridisation between fuscus and graellsii. I don’t know about this but I can say that LBBG’s come in the whole range of colours up here. I also saw one dark graellsii type seemingly paired with a Herring Gull which could result in some even more difficult looking offspring.
EDIT: of course I had not considered the possibility of HEUGLINI when I wrote the original entry. I don't believe there are proven records of this sub-species in Norway but it is probably just as likely at this latitude and longitude as Graellssi

Some other pictures:

Killer Whale (spekkhogger)

3 Killer Whales including a youngster

Otter

Common Seal

Also some scenic botanical shots from Værøy

A pale Whimbrel (småspove) – Slender-billed Curlew look alike

A group of five young Pintails (stjertand)

1k Pintails - the green on the wing of the right-hand bird shows it to be a males

The lack of green shows this bird to be a female

Gannet (havsule)

Gannet and Fulmar (havhest)

Juvenile Herring Gull

Værøy

We are on the island of Værøy now at the end of the chain of Lofoten Islands. The ferry journey from Bodø gave me Storm Petrel (havsvale), Great Skua (storjo), Artic Skua (tyvjo), Gannet (havsule) and Fulmar (havhest).  On the island there have been no big surprises yet but 5 young Pintail (stjertand) indicate local breeding and a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls (sildemåke) are of the race graellsii with one intermedius. Graellsii is the race breeding in the British Isles and Intermedius the race breeding in southern Norway. So with the fuscus i saw a few days ago I have seen all three of the European races. Passerines are scarce here but Ring Ouzels (ringtrost) breed and are always a nice sight. Razzorbills (alke), Puffins (lunde) and Black Guillemots are common around the island and breed but have I yet to see Guillemot ( lomvi) which is becoming a very scarce breeding bird. Three White-tailed Eagles (havørn) and a Kestrel (tårnfalk) are the only raptors we have seen.