A "Yellow Legged" Argentatus Gull; Skeppsbrön; 2nd November 2009

Yellow Legged Gull? Note the rather clean head with markings more or less restricted to the nape. The most important features visible in this shot are the primries, note subterminal mirrors on P9 and P10. in addition the complete, unbroken subterminal band on P5 across both inner and outer webs of the feather should clinch identification?

A flight view showing the upperside. P9 and P10 are again well displayed in this shot. The yellowish legs obvious here, though leg colour is far from diagnostic, a small number of argentatus also show yellowish legs.

Another good shot of the upperside of the bird....

At rest on the water, this is how the bird was first seen, initially the very clean head in comparison to all of the adult Argentatus present drew my attention. Comparison of the primary projection with nearbly Argentatus really led to me sitting up to pay full attention, the mirrors on this bird appearing noticably smaller than those of the adult Argentatus close by. The orbital ring is yellowish in colour. Bill fairly long and parallel sided in appearance...

... a three quarter rear view, the bird spent all of it's time tday on or above the water and did not come to land. Came readily to bread, always bring a loaf with you when Gull watching!

A useful shot of the bird lifting its wings up over its back which allows P5 to be seen...

Detail of the primaries. P9 and 10 clearly showing subterminal mirrors...

Primary detail, note P5 again, dark subterminal bands visible on both inner and outer webs of the feather...



Went to Skeppsbrön today on a routine check of the gulls there and was there from 2pm. or so photographing and sketching the birds present, namely Argentatus Herring(45) and Fuscus Lesser Black Backed Gull(5). Glancing through the birds with binoculars I was immediatly struck by the clean headed appearance of a resting adult bird on the water, comparisons with adults nearby set alarm bells off, primaries clearly attenuated, but most of all it was the obviously smaller mirrors on the primaries that really got my attention. I got a few good photos of the bird at this point before proceeding to the loaf of bread! In went the bread, which had initially helped put all the birds in the area right in front of me, and into flight went the bird, which competed gamely with the local gulls and allowed me to get some really useful shots of the bird in flight, which helped clinch the identification. Spent about 90 minutes watching the bird, which was still present when I left,Rushed home, got the pictures on the monitor and did a little research on the features, waiting on views of more expert birders on this bird...

Edit; The bird has been confirmed as a yellow legged Argentatus Herring Gull, which was something of a disapointment, but nevertheless a very educational bird which will benifit me in the future. A Yellow Legged Gull should in fact show a much broader subterminal band on P5 and display a red and not yellowish orbital ring. Also the primaries ought to show more dark from P6-P10. A link here to an excellent shot recomended to me to highlight the difference on P5...

http://www.artportalen.se/birds/gallery_imageinfo.asp?imageID=175341

Gulls; Skeppsbrön; 2nd November 2009

Argentatus Herring Gulls. Note the adult, second from the left has yellowish legs.

A 1st Calender Argentatus on the deck at Skeppsbrön.

1st Calender Argentatus in flight...

2nd Calender Argentatus Herring Gull

Adult Argentatus Herring Gull. Compare the apparent size of the mirrors and the primary projection on this individual to the featured gull in the above post...

1st Calender Lesser Black Backed Gull

1st Calender Fuscus Lesser Black Backed Gull.

Adult Argentatus in Flight..


Some photos of gulls taken today at Skeppsbrön before finding the gull in the above post. About 45 Argentatus Herring Gulls, 5 Fuscus Lesser Black Backed Gulls present today, plan to watch this site very closely this winter...

Landsort; 29th October 2009

Landsort lighthouse on approach from the Ferry, always a welcome sight....

Waxwing. A lone bird found on a wind stunted Rowan proved a superb subject for photos, the following portraits the best of the shots taken....

The extent of the yellow on the primaries helps age this bird as a first year male....

Goshawk, a 1st Calender Year bird blasting through on passage....

Brent Goose, race Bernicla; 2nd Calender year bird.

Landsort Lighthouse from the south..



A full day on Landsort today, up early at a mind boggling 4am.! Had sensibly got to bed two hours previously after a late night DVD fest, as you do. Slept almost all of the way to the island before the ferry finally belched me upon the pier and the birding began.

This island always produces some thing of interest and straight away a rather loud Crested Tit high over head?, what the?, that snapped me out of sleep and I latched onto the culprit, a super male Snow Bunting low overhead flying around the lighthouse. Then came Brambling, Mealy Redpolls, Goldfinch, a small group of Parrot Crossbills, Meadow Pipit, 3 Twite and a stream of Siskin, all moving north. A highlight then came in the form a Grey Wagtail, a rarity in these parts, which flew around the south tip of the island for some time calling constantly. Then a few Sparrowhawk zipped past before a stonking juv. Goshawk powered past just to the west. A search of the areas of cover produced little except for a lone Waxwing which proved vey photogenic...

Back toward the north end after a couple of hours, a probable tristus Chiffchaff was briefly seen and heard to call once after a shortway. More Parrot Crossbills were noted over the next while, along with a handful of Commons. Then a highlight as a Bearded Tit juvenile exploded into call as it flew from one area of reed to another, ging me a great flight view through the bins in the process, great stuff, not seen to many Bearded Tit in the past! Further north and more Parrot Crossbills moving, Bullfinches numerous to with at least 20 noted. At the north end found a group of birders and learned a Two Barred Crossbill had been seen just before 8am! Feck! Stayed at the north tip a while, though passage dropped off at noon to almost nothing. A small flock of Cranes were enjoyed on the way back to the south, as was a Dark-bellied Brent Goose, not a bad bird on this coastline. Spent the afternoon flogging the south part of the island, flushing the male Snow Bunting againg three times, with little else to show for exhaustive searching, barring a Black Guillemot. Caught the ferry at dusk and went back to sleep. Great Day!

White Tailed Eagle; Angarn; 1st October 2009

A superb sight, fit to grace any day out birding, White Tailed Eagle...

Like a flying door. The bird floated right over my head in slow cicles before drifting off.

The dark tips on the tail feathers help age this bird as a sub adult bird, perhaps in it's 4th calender year...

The wings pinched in as the bird turns in the air. The wings and primary feathers are remarkably pliable and help the bird to take full advantage of rising thermals.

Nice to see a bird with a full set of primaries, often these birds are moulting.


My best photos to date of this hugely impressive raptor, the White Tailed Eagle. These birds are enormous, though generally they are seen at distance and often at great height. This bird floated over my head today, causing absolute pandemonium on the reserve as 500 Greylag Geese took to the sky in panic, the air filled with their agitated calls. This bird is not uncommon now around Stockholm after a major recovery in Sweden over the past 25 years, great to have these birds in the skies overhead...

Other species noted today included Common Crossbil, Hen Harrier, Goshawk and Black Woodpecker. Good numbers of Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Thrushes and Woodpigeon noted overhead also.

Atypical Herring Gull; Skeppsbrön; 1st October 2009

Underside in flight; general tone very pale for a first winter Argentatus Herring gull, also note very pale underwing and the tail pattern.

Flight shot; the bird looking rather long billed here, pale inner primary panel clearly visible in this shot.

On the deck, the light a little cold in this shot. Greater covert's rather well marked, not very uniformly notched,, In general the covert's not right for Caspain Gull and not extensively dark centred as one might expect of that species. Again, pale head and breast drew attention to the bird..

Shot of the upperparts in flight, not pin sharp but useful nonetheless. Head, back, rump and innertail all very pale for an Argentatus of this age. Good view of the uppertail here, rather clean innertail quite unusual...

Squabbling for handouts and showing the upperwings...

Another shot of the upperparts in flight...

And again the upperwing, pale inner primary window.

Best shot of the bird at rest on land. Structurally looks fine for Argentatus Herring Gull, though the bill could look alarmingly long at times, when the bird depressed the feathers of the head. Mantle, scapulars and coverts all look fine to my eye for Herring Gull. Tertials rather extensively dark centred for a Herring Gull, though are still rather brownish toned.


Again at Skeppsbrön today in the evening, again another pallid Herring Gull. Initialy I did'nt think this was same individual photographed last week as that bird looked like it was missing tertials on one side. Closer inspection of the earlier photos reveals that bird had indeed a full set of tertials, albeit a little mangled and pushed upward! So the same bird here, tertials sorted out. Again structurally looked like Herring Gull on the deck, but pallid features, longish bill, extensive dark centres to the tertials drew my attention.

Ringed Herring Gull, Skeppsbron; 1st October 2009

This bird today at Skeppsbrön, a ringed bird that has been around for some time. Got a decent photo today, the colour ring clearly reads C85HS. Would be interesting to find out where this 3rd Calender bird was ringed...

Sandemar; 30th September 2009

Golden Plover taking off...

Grey Plover, a rather scarce wader in the Stockholm area, this site on of the better ones in the region for seeing the species...

Two of eight Golden Plover present at the reserve today, this pair caught in flight...

Yellowhammer, numerous to say the least, plenty seen today...


A few hours spent at Sandemar today, the main target was Grey Plover, which was still present today. Got a few record shots of the bird, which is far from commonly seen in the Stockholm region. The bird was in the company of 8 Golden Plover, whilst 5 Dunlin were also present at the shoreline. Otherwise something of a disapointment today, with no sign of two other species noted in the area in the previous days, namely Rough Legged Buzzard and Great Grey Shrike.

Plenty of commoner species noted, with good numbers of migrating Meadow Pipit(200) and Woodpigeon(430) in particular. Jays were also on the move, several birds moving south overhead. A thourough searce of the stubble fields in the area threw up no good birds, though hundreds of Yellowhammer noted...

Coots; Tyresö Slott; 26th September 2009

A really poor day birdwise, just a few photos of Coot to show for my efforts! Kingfisher was heard today but not seen, two have been seen in the area of late. Hawfinches were also lacking, rather surprisingly, they are often present here in numbers in autumn. No passage of any kind noted, no migrants and no raptors! Weather has been poor for rarities for the month so far, really do hope that changes soon....

Vagrant Darters; Tyresö; 26th September 2009

Adult Male

Female type, showing a litte red on the top side of the abdomen...

Female type. Older insects can darken, even the wings taking on a darker brownish cast...

Not a lot about birdwise today at Tyresö Slott, so when I noticed several Darter dragonflies in a sunny glade I decided to take advantage of the light and spent an hour trying to get some shots with my Nikkor 50-105mm Lens. No expert in these insects, but research online and comparison suggests these are Vagrant Darters, which in actual fact is a new species for me, if only because I was previously ignorant of their identification as such. The photo results were okay in the end, nice to get a few decent shots of this apparently widespread dragonfly. At some stage in the future a macro lens would be a nice addition to the camera bag...

Atypical Herring Gull; Skeppsbrön; 25th September 2009

A useful shot showing a range of features. In flight the head, back, rump and inner tail appeared very pale and attracted attention to the bird. Tail atypical for a 1st calender Herring, very clean inner tail feathers and rump as on might expect on a Caspian Gull. Also in this shot the pattern on the greater and median covert's appears Caspian like. Note that the pallid appearance of the birds body is not mirrored in the wings, which appear normal in tone.

A decent shot giving a good view of the rather pale underwing. The axilleries pale cream, very delicately barred, not easily seen though without an excellent view. Herring Gull at this age ought to show a much darker underwing...

The left hand side view. A very pale headed bird, the single tertial on this side rather interesting, dark centred and showing a narrow, even pale border. Bill all dark, not especially long, although lack of pronounced gonydeal angle and general shape interesting and could be said to be rather intermediate. Variability in bill length, tone and shape is of course not unusual in itself.

A good shot of the underside in flight. Underwing is strikingly pale on this individual, a characteristic of Caspian Gull. The bird tended to look much more like a Caspian in flight, due pallid body and tail, underwing and upperwing coverts.

Right hand side view. A full set of tertials on this side, rather narrow fringes with brownish centres, rather too light for Caspian Gull. There is a suggestion of notched marking also, indicating Herring Gull. At rest the bird generally appeared round headed and short winged, structure was that one might expect of Herring Gull.


A good view of the hand of the wing in flight. Pale window on inner primaries not as light as other, more typical Herring Gulls in the area, though nevertheless present and noticable in the air...

This bird today at Skepppsbrön, initially picked up on the rooftops before giving better views later on over the water. Initially looked pallid and at times long billed, though after careful observation I am not entirely happy this is just a Herring Gull, rather a very interesting bird exhibiting a number of features more akin to Caspian Gull, which have been discussed above. The bird certainly is at least partially Argentatus Herring Gull, with a very real chance of a second parent of Caspian Gull origin. Comments most welcome on this bird...

Greater Black Backed Gull; Skeppsbrön; 25th September 2009

At rest on the water. Note the deep, heavy appearance of the bill, tertial pattern, boldly notched greater covert's, whitish head and generally bulky appearance...

In flight, note the tail pattern...

Greater Black Backed Gull, a first calander bird from Skeppsbrön today. The only bird in the area at the minute of it's species...

Common Gulls; Skeppsbrön; 25th September 2009

A few images of Common Gulls from today at Skeppsbrön, several first calender birds in the area offering good photo opportunities. These birds all now in the early stages of moult as can be seen above...

Bluethroat; Årstafältet; 16th September 2009

Right out in the open, one of my favourite species, and an annual treat each year in September, Bluethroat....

Legging it for cover after my approach with camera and tripod..

A typical pose, bolt upright with slightly raised tail...

Bluethroat is a real treat for me each september as the birds move south on passage and can be seen readily at the right locations. Årstafältet is an excellent site for these birds at this time of year and today I found 4 birds present after some hours of searching carefully, just one of these birds allowing a few shots before flitting back into thick cover...

Tree Sparrows; Årstafältet; 16th September 2009

Årstafältet is a prime location for Tree Sparrow and today the site was heaving with them. The only flock I counted held 160 birds, in fact the total was reported at more than 500 of these birds today, which really is amazing to myself, having seen the decline of the species in Ireland whilst growing up there. The light early this morning was quite exceptional and it allowed me to get some wonderful shots of the birds as they perched just metres from me...

Blue Tit; Årstafältet; 16th September 2009

Not a rarity by any means, but my best photos of this common bird to date were taken today. The bird landed right in front of me in stunning light allowing to get some cracking images...