The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Apologies for late posting. The apparent 3cy Kumlien's Gull was showing well yesterday afternoon at Frampton RSPB reserve. Initially on the iced-over Reedbed Lagoon, it flew on to a ploughed field at the back of the lagoon where it showed well until 2.10pm at least. Oddly, it was alone, so not hard to pick out !


Phil

Hi Phil,

Just wondering if the consensus on this bird is that it's an Iceland gull showing some characteristics of Kumlien's? Steve has some cracking photos from yesterday, so hopefully we can look at it in more detail....

John

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Contact: recorder_south@lincsbirdclub.co.uk

Some more sightings from yesterday at Frampton;

All from the visitor centre;
Scaup - 2
Pintail - 357 (another record reserve count)
Wigeon - 480
Teal - 270
Mallard - 180
Pale-bellied brent goose - 1
Peregrine - 2
Hen harrier - 1

Cheers,

John

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Contact: recorder_south@lincsbirdclub.co.uk

This bird was present again from early afternoon until 4pm at least on the ploughed carrot field viewable from the track along the Reedbed lagoon opposite the visitor centre. If anyone has good photos it would be good to see some,

Phil

The 2nd winter Kumlien's type gull thing was again showing from the visitor centre at 3pm.

Also;
3 Scaups
9 Pale-bellied brent geese
9 Ruffs
23 Whooper swans

John

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Contact: recorder_south@lincsbirdclub.co.uk

Given the lack of taxonomic status afforded to kumlieni, i would imagine that any Iceland Gull showing characters of Kumlien's is, by definition, a Kumlien's. If you want to make a statement about its likely parentage and origin, then that may be a more difficult label to pin on it. It all depends on what exactly kumlieni is! The status of nominate glaucoides in America is clouded by the apparent occurence of white-winged Kumlien's, although given intra(sub-)specific variation within all of these gulls, i'm not sure how you confidently identify a white-winged Kumlien's. Things like mantle colour and size are all pretty variable.

The Frampton bird seems ok, probably!

That sums the Icelandic end of Kumliens up Paul and the same should apply to the Thayer's end as well. There are recent photos around at the moment of Kumliens which, to my eyes, are essentially Thayers. So, can one say that if it's not a 'pure' Iceland or a 'pure' Thayers ( whatever 'pure' is ) it's a Kumliens?
Looks like a nice job for the rarities committee!!

Hi,

Kumlien's gull showing well on North Scrape this afternoon. Visible from all three hides.

Simon.

Following up my previous comment of "The Frampton bird seems ok, probably!" see this link to the excellent gull forum at http://www.talk.gull-research.org/viewt ... ?f=7&t=678

The jury may be coming back in with a new verdict....

Thanks for that Paul, I'm certainly floundering in the pit of uncertainty and as CG says in that link, there appears to be an almost continual clinal variation. I'd like to see the Frampton bird in 12 months time. Doesn't anyone have a cage full of these birds to study their moult over time at close quarters !!!!

Phil

Saw the Kumlien's/Thayers/Iceland Possible Hybrid White-winged Gull thingy this afternoon - and still don't know if it's tickable! Ah well, it'll be my first armchair tick, hopefully!

Hello to the person from the coach trip from Derby that recognised me from my posts in here - ** waves **

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Hi,

Kumlien's gull showing very well on the scrapes this afternoon. Excellent views from the path to East Hide.

Simon.