Caspian Gull - Near Adult winter, Hole Haven Creek
5th January 2008
Note especially the long primary projection; long thin and perhaps pinker than normal legs; high chest; sloping forehead, even sided bill and mid grey upper-parts.
Caspian Gull - Near Adult winter, Hole Haven Creek
28th February 2008
Note the long slender pale lemony yellow bill, clean white head and small dark eye and long slender legs. Also note the extent of dark markings at end of bill.
Bird aged as near adult due to small white primary tips and dark markings in right side of tail
Caspian Gull - Near Adult winter, Hole Haven Creek
28th February 2008
Clearly not the same individual as the above due to near lack of dark bill tip markings. The classic Caspian Gulls features are all there:
· Slender, parallel sided bill
· Small clean white head with sloping forehead
· Mid grey upper-parts
· Pasty fleshy coloured legs
· Long primary projection
· White tongue extension to the underside of P10.
To assist in identification of this individual in the future note the paler grey inner greater covert and likewise on the birds other side
Caspian Gull - Near Adult winter with juvenile Glaucous Gull, Hole Haven Creek
28th February 2008
Same bird as above but here it is in the same frame as a juvenile/1st winter Glaucous Gull, not something that has probably been photgraphed to often in the UK
Caspian Gull - Near Adult winter, Hole Haven Creek
7th February 2008
A classic bird. Note:
The lemony yellow parallel sided bill with little or no Gonydeal angle and dark marks extending onto the upper-mandible
The clean white head and pin point dark eye and downward turning gape line
The long pasty flesh coloured legs
The mid grey upper-parts, the long primary projections
The lack of obvious tertial step
The all white tip to P10
The white tongue on the under-side of P10
The white mark on the wing appeared to be as a result of a another gull...
Caspian Gull - Near Adult winter, Hole Haven Creek
7th February 2008
Same bird as above though at slightly different angle which shows off the primary projection and lack of obvious tertial step better
Caspian Gull - Near Adult winter, Hole Haven Creek
7th February 2008
Again same bird as above but here in direct comparison with 'white-headed' adult Herring Gulls. Most noticeable differences are the slightly darker grey upper-parts; the small rounded head (due to angle); extremely small dark beady eye; lemony bill colour though the lower Herring Gull is very similar in this respect; the long primary projection, the pushed out breast and the very long pasty coloured legs.
Caspian Gull - Adult, Dungeness, Kent, 18th January 2009
This wide shot of a distant bird clearly demonstrates the qualities of adult Caspian Gulls. Compared the upper part tone with the Herring Gull to the the right. The bright white and unmarked head is obvious as is the mere pin prick dark eye. The long primary projection and lack of obvious tertial step lend to an elongated appearance. The underside to the tip of P10 is completely white.
Caspian Gull - 4th-year, Paglesham Lagoon,
12th August 2006
This near adult is regrowing its primaries. The head is completely unmarked white and the quite large eye, for a Caspian, forward in the face.
The bill shows only the minimal of angles at the Gonys with dark marks behind the deveoping red spot and on the culmen.
Caspian Gull - Larus cachinnans
Adults & Near Adults: page 1
Caspian Gull - Near-adult, Private Site, Essex, 4th April 2009
This bird was never really that close so a little extra cropping of the image was required. During the time I was watching the bird it seemed as a adult: small clean white head with dark eye forward in the face (the was actually not completely dark but at range this not easy to see), the bill is slender, has the typical dark mark on the upper mandible above the Gonys spot and a lark line along the length of the cutting edges. The tip is tappered and slightly paler than the rest of the bill. The neck was long and slender, more noticeably when the bird was alert. The legs are also pale fleshy coloured and thin. The upper-parts were a shade or two darker than nearby Herring Gulls. The black primaries show largish white tips.
Caspian Gull - Near-adult, Private Site, Essex, 4th April 2009
Same bird as above:
It became fully apparent that the bird was not an adult but a fourth-year as can be seen by the dark marks in both the greater and median primary coverts.
Note the P10 has a large mirror but is separated from the small white tip by a broad black band and that there is only a small white mirror on P9, larger on the right wing. Both of these primaries are black nearly all the way to the primary coverts. Both of these features are perhaps more like an adult Yellow-legged Gull than on a Caspian Gull however the immaturity of the bird may well be a factor. Note, especially on the right wing, the Pattern of P8, the inner web is boldly pale greyish-white whilst P7 has a long black spur along the outer web. This along with the spur on P6 appears as a more typical Caspian Gull pattern. P5 has a broad black band which extends slightly along the outer web. P4 has a dark mark on the outer web only whilst on the left wing there is a tiny black spot on the outer web of P3.
The long, spindly and pasty coloured legs are again obvious here.
Caspian Gull - Adult, Private Site, Essex, 1st August 2009
The classic profile can be easily seen here; the long sloping forehead, small dark eye (with just a hint of a red orbital ring) and long, slender, parallel sided and lemon yellow bill. The feathers on the rear crown are scruffy due to wear and moult.
The upper-part tone, compared with the Herring Gull, is slightly darker and bluer whilst it is aged here as a fourth-year/near adult due to the dark centers to the washed out lesser coverts. In flight there were also dark marks to the primary coverts.
The image below, of the same bird, clearly shows the very slender and pasty pink coloured legs. The primaries are worn at the tips but the are still large mirrors visible on P10 and P9.
Caspian Gull - Near-adult, Private Site, Essex, 5th December 2009
The classic profile and bill shape are apparent and fine very limited streaking is just visible at the lower hind-neck.
Note how long and relatively narrow the wings are. The wing-tips have limited black due to the large all white tip to P10 and the large white mirror on P9 whilst the pale grey of the feather bases eats into the black.
This bird was aged as a near-adult due to the rather larger than usual dark mark on the bill for an adult and the faintest of dark marks in the primary coverts and outer primaries on the left wing, not visible in this shot.