|
|
|
|
January 16th, 2006. East Providence, RI.
| Mew Gull Larus (canus) - form uncertain. (Adult winter).
| Shai
Mitra captured these images on January 16th, the day before my visit to
East Providence. To date, the first is one of the better images that we have showing the
primary pattern relatively well. Although suffering from strong
backlighting, the images reveal some very interesting details and I’ve
attempted to count and caption the primaries on the first cropped image below.
| Image appears courtesy of Shai Mitra.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Within
the information included under ‘Kamchatka Gull’ in “Gulls of North
America, Europe and Asia’ by Olson and Larsson, is the following
snippet;
“P8 black grading to grey at base. Shows conspicuous white tongues on
P5 -7 (8); rarely as prominent as in Mew on P8. P4 frequently with dark
markings”. The text from the same guide also mentions that L.c.heinei
can show “dark markings near the tip of P4”. If nothing else, the
pattern must surely show that the bird, as Shai Mitra put it ,
“CLEARLY favors an Old World taxon”.
At this stage, you might want to reserve your own judgement as to what
this primary pattern actually reveals, but it certainly adds another
intriguing piece to this very interesting puzzle.
*Special thanks go to Shai Mitra for allowing me to use these images on the Keenbirding website.
|
|
Although this shot is suffering from the strong backlighting, the pattern on the tips of
P6 and P5 on the left wing is quite neatly defined.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|