First and foremost, thank you to those who posted comments about 'XVFM' (the presumed CaspianxHerring hybrid) in my last post...
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| There he/she is again |
I'm pleased to say I have heard back from the ringer, and this bird was ringed as a pullus on 9/6/15 here...
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| Grabendorfer See, Brandenburg, Germany |
This will give a better idea of where exactly that is...
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| It's come a long way! |
It was ringed in a Caspian Gull colony as a Casp, but the ringer says there are rouge Herring and Yellow-legged Gulls mixing in with these birds. Messy stuff, and look what it produces....messy gulls!
All in all it's been a very educational and highly interesting bird. Although I won't lie, I'd swap it for a pristine first-winter 100% Casp any day - they are such smart birds!
Great to have this follow-up Steve, whatever the bird is it's come a long-long way! I supose knowing there were rouge Herring and Yellow-legged Gulls in the colony the bird should have been logged by the ringer as pressumed Caspian? However good to see the ringer acknowledge the fact a cross could have been possible. To me it looks to have Herring Gull in the mix (with Caspian) rather than Yellow-legged - but who knows! I suppose claims of Caspian Gull need closer examination or are these crosses not seen as significant.. As you say a classic Caspian Gull normally stands out from other large gulls - even my very good looking 2nd w at Broadsands (Devon Birds 11th Nov sightings page) did not have the classic long-bill fortunately everything else was pretty much perfect!
ReplyDeleteInteresting isn't it. I reckon soon they will be ringing these birds as cach-types or from a cach colony without giving the species. Surely the problem is only going to get worse and worse, especially if these hybrids are able to breed.
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