January 27th, 2006. East Providence, RI.
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Mew/Kamchatka Gull Larus (canus) kamtschatschensis??.
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Susannah and I dropped down to Rhode Island to view the
'gull' today. It eventually flew into Watchemocket Cove after spending
most of its time feeding on the west side of the Providence River at
considerable range. Unfortunately, the winter sunshine created some
very harsh lighting conditions today. The shots included here are
suffering from strong backlighting.
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*News from Japan: Today I received the following message (appearing here with permission) from Osao & Michiaki Ujihara, creators of the superb Japanese Gull-site;
" Thank you very much for the very interesting gull from USA.
We feel the "canus" gull looks identical with average Kamtchatka Gulls seen in Japan. The stout overall structure and largish bill seem to be very good. Probably some large male-type Kamtchatka Gulls can be still stouter (large bill/small eye etc...) than this.
But on the other hand many female-types can look cuter than this.
We can't find any wrong features on this bird for Kamtchatka Gull.
And when we consider the frequency of some other gull species
we agree that a Kamtchatka Gull can be expected to show up in Eastern USA.
Osao & Michiaki Ujihara."
This is a message of great interest and I would hold this opinion in the very highest regard. Osao & Michiaki are very
active gull enthusiasts who regularly come into contact with wintering Kamchatka Gulls in Japan.
I sincerely hope the level of interest in this 'canus'
gull will remain high during the remainder of its time in RI. The
balance of opinion that I've received does (still) lean toward this
bird being kamtschatschensis or heinei/kamtschatschensis, but
some questions remain. Can an out-of-range Kamchatka Gull be
conclusively identified in the field?? At the very least, there is a
consensus that the bird is an Old World 'Common' Gull from one of the
three forms - canus/heinei/kamtschatschensis. |
Images taken using Canon Powershot A-95 through Swarovski telescope
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