{"id":2746,"date":"2007-10-26T12:42:53","date_gmt":"2007-10-26T12:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/?p=2746"},"modified":"2024-08-07T16:12:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T16:12:31","slug":"ring-billed-gull-st-agnes-isles-of-scilly-26th-october-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/ring-billed-gull-st-agnes-isles-of-scilly-26th-october-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"Ring-billed Gull – St.Agnes, Isles of Scilly – 26th October 2007"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tLocality – Porth Killier Bay, St.Agnes, Isles of Scilly.<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tAge & Sex – 1st winter – possibly a small female.<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tObservers – TD\/RMRJ\/RWK\/DAN<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\tThe following are slightly edited extracts from the rarities report submitted to the Isles <\/span>of Scilly rarities panel. Also a selection of digi-scoped images taken at the time of <\/span>finding the bird. Myself and three other birding friends had spent the late morning and <\/span>early afternoon of the 26th October, on St.Agnes. <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\tHaving already seen a Rose-breasted Grosbeak on St.Agnes earlier in the week and a <\/span>Dusky Warbler being discovered on 25th, St.Agnes seemed a good place to spend our <\/span>last day. We were wandering back via Porth Killier towards the quay to catch our boat <\/span>back to St.Mary’s and it was around 4pm that I noticed a medium sized gull flying into <\/span>Porth Killier Bay accompanied by a small number of Black-headed Gulls. The flock flew <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tby and I casually called out 1st winter Common Gull. As I watched the bird, I noticed a <\/span>pale secondary panel in the wing and also noted a tail band but paid little more <\/span>attention to the bird.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\tWe continued to examine the waders and noted a good variety including, Whimbrel, <\/span>Grey Plover and Knot. As time was pressing on, we started to walk around the Porth <\/span>Killier Bay footpath heading towards the quay. It was now about 16:10hrs and our <\/span>attention was redirected to the “Common Gull” and what attracted our attention even <\/span>more was a casual comment made by an unknown passing observer and his <\/span>partner. “Why is the gull amongst the Black-headed Gulls not a Ring-billed Gull”? <\/span>followed by “I am not sure, as it is sometime since I have seen a 1st winter”. <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\tRing-billed Gull started to enter my mind, especially as I had previously made <\/span>comment to myself that the bird had a pale secondary wing panel. We continued to <\/span>comment amongst ourselves that the bird was indeed  very pale mantled but some felt <\/span>that the bill was too small and neat for RBG. I made the comment that the bird was <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tvery heavily blotched on the head, nape and neck for Common Gull. The mantle was a <\/span>very pale grey and that the bird was “long-winged” and didn’t have the gentle <\/span>expression of a Common Gull. I decided to take a sequence of Digi-scoped images <\/span>and during this time something disturbed the flock of gulls and they drifted across to <\/span>the far side of the bay. At this point a comment to the bill pattern reminded us of a first <\/span>winter Glaucous Gull. Time was now really pressing and we reluctantly left the bird in <\/span>the bay and promptly marched off to the quay, arriving just in time to catch the last boat <\/span>back to St.Mary’s.  <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\tOn arrival back at our flat, we began to see many features of 1st winter RBG from my <\/span>photos – the pale grey mantle colour, especially compared to Black-headed Gull – a <\/span>heavily blotched head, neck and nape that extended around to the flanks as crescents <\/span>or chevrons, similar in shape to the markings on the mantle. For me the best feature <\/span>that stood out were the pale fringes to the tertials,  pale grey mantle clearly showing <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
\n\twhite tips to the scapulars and dark sub-terminal crescents or anchors on the mantle – <\/span>This feature is not normally present on 1st winter Common Gull, which normally show <\/span>a plain and uniform mantle. <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\t\"\"<\/a>   \"\"<\/a>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\tOn closer inspection of the photos, the bill appeared to be the right colour. A pinkish <\/span>base with a good black tip, reminiscent of a 1st winter Glaucous Gull. It also appeared <\/span>less delicate than in the field. The leg colour was never determined. Due to insufficient <\/span>reference to RBG, I decided to make a more detailed inspection of the bird once I was <\/span>back home. Having checked out  “The Gulls of Europe, Asia & North America” and <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tsome other photo material that I had taken of a 2nd winter bird on the Hayle, Cornwall, <\/span>many years ago, I was even more convinced that our bird was indeed a 1st w RBG. <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
\n\t \n<\/div>\n
\n\tAfter seeking further advice from a local Derbyshire birder with whom I consider to be a <\/span>Gull expert, he commented that many 1st winter Common Gulls could match our <\/span>individual but the combination of all the features is pretty conclusive to RBG. So I <\/span>submitted the bird to the rarities committee on the Isles of Scilly as a 1st winter Ringbilled Gull. The record was subsequently accepted and documented in the annual <\/span>report.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
\n\t \n<\/div>\n
\n\tMy thanks go to RMRJ\/RWK\/DAN for their valued help in preparing this article and for <\/span>their support and help in the identification process.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\t \n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Locality – Porth Killier Bay, St.Agnes, Isles of Scilly. Age & Sex – 1st winter – possibly a small female. Observers – TD\/RMRJ\/RWK\/DAN   The following are slightly edited extracts from the rarities report submitted to the Isles of Scilly rarities panel. Also a selection of digi-scoped images taken at the time of finding the bird. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,18,532,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-175","category-birds","category-birdsof2007","category-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}