Whilst gulling at Richmond Bank, Cheshire on the 2nd December 2010 I had the good fortune for an adult Caspian Gull to fly right through my telescope view whilst I was searching through the perhaps 10,000 or so gulls loafing on the mudbank there. Despite only a brief flight view at a range of approximately 120 metres the indisputable classic outer primary pattern was immediately arresting. Fortunately, the bird had the common decency to land shortly after (though still at 120 metres distance) and myself and gulling companion Pete Berry enjoyed the best part of forty minutes 'grilling' the bird.

Genuinely beautiful and elegant it admirably displayed all the prerequisite features, a truly classic individual. As Caspian Gulls are still currently relatively rare in the north-west of England and fairly well photographed birds even more so, it is hoped this short photo essay may go to illustrate some of those more classic identification features and if not, then just to flaunt this cracking individual.

Above: Flawless! Whilst some argentatus Herring Gulls can portray surprisingly Caspian reminiscent features, they never exhibit the full suite which supplies this individual with its classically elegant look.

The bill of this bird always appeared rather strikingly long and slender, especially in direct comparison to argenteus and argentatus Herring Gulls around it. The tip had a somewhat gently curving culmen (clearly so in direct comparison with both races of Herring Gull once again) and lacked any prominent goyns angle, genuinely appearing rather straight edged on the lower mandible and parallel overall. The colouration, whilst clearly weaker than most other large gulls present, was still evidently yellow though as said, rather weak and washed out. There was a very small black mark on the upper mandible, just above the goyns and this is just perceivable in the photo. The very tip of the bill was patently paler and appeared whitish whilst its eye colour was eye-catching, due to its apparent deep and solid blackness. Whilst occasional Herring Gulls can exhibit dark looking eyes and indeed those of Caspian are less commonly actually black, this individual's were clearly at the very darkest range for Caspian Gull and were really quite striking, which combined with the absolute pure whiteness of the head seemed to accentuate their small and 'beady' look.

Above: Even in this pose the head appears small and 'skinny' in comparison to the body but at times this could appear extremely emphatic and its overall look both peculiar and striking. The often proclaimed 'ventral bulge' (immediately behind the legs on the underside of the body) seemed particularly conspicuous on this individual and was evident in any pose. The head shape was frankly, beautiful! Constantly smooth in profile but ranging from quite domed looking to really quite flat on the forehead. The peak of the crown was always situated just behind the eye and the actual forehead itself most often had an almost concave look to it which emphasized the long look to the 'face' and bill.

Above: It's neck, even during a more 'normal' relaxed pose looked strikingly long, which when combined with the very small, skinny looking head gave rise to a most unique profile. The general look is clearly visible here (though admittedly the photo is poo!). Note the 'flatness' to the contour of the mantle and back, combined with the distinct lack of tertial step and that ventral bulge once again. As the bird is slightly more alert in this pose, its long legs are conspicuous.

Above: This image admirably portrays the 'high bosomed' look to the chest which was consistent and is clearly visible in the other images. The bird's rear-end looks very long and attenuated (perhaps even more perceptible in the image directly above this one) and is due in no small part to it's very long primaries. The tail tip actually fell just marginally short of mid way along the exposed primaries. The leg colour was not surprisingly difficult to assess given the viewing distance involved but more consistently appeared greyish-flesh.

Above: Here we can objectively assess the grey hue of the bird's mantle and wing coverts. Clearly darker than argenteus Herring Gull, the Caspian Gull (centre, facing left) was approximate in tone to nearby argentatus Herring Gulls and was assessed to be around a 6 on the Kodak grey scale. And yes, I do indeed carry one around with me when I'm out gulling, sad I know!

Above: At last! Eventually, with luck, good judgement or just plain persistence, the bird preens and allows the underside of P10 to be clinched. An enormous long white tip (the apparent dusky subterminal bar is in fact P9 showing through from the other side!) with the silvery white tongue eating deep into the black on the inner web complete with a sharply demarcated border. Of course some argentatus Herring Gulls can display an identical pattern but combined with the full suite of other structural features this is perfect! Note that the black band in between the silvery grey tongue and white tip of P10 is actually narrower (at it's shortest part) than the length of the white primary tip itself.

Above: Unfortunately, in order to obtain anything of the open wings at all I had switched to video mode in the hope that the bird would eventually 'do the honours', so whilst these are fairly unsatisfactory videograbs I'm just glad anything exists at all! The Caspian Gull is to the left of the photo, just taking off and the outer primary pattern was especially striking, enough so that I initially picked it out in flight! On the upperwing, the long white tip to P10 is very conspicuous as is a small mirror on P9 separated from the white tip by a narrow black subterminal bar. P5 can be seen here to exhibit a strong and solid (even across both webs) black subterminal band. Although not fully visible in the image though, long grey tongues were obvious on P7-P9, extending deeply towards the wing tip with white 'moons' (cresent shaped white in between the grey tongues and black wingtips) prominent on P6-8 in particular.

Above: Note the lack of contrast between the underwing coverts and underside of the secondaries (compared for example with Yellow-legged Gull) and the broad white trailing edge to the upperwing. The underside of the wingtip can be seen to display the classic long silvery tongues eating deep into the black of the outer primaries which combined with the long white tip to P10 plus meagre black subterminal band on P9 give the impression of rather restricted black in the primaries with a large white triangular wingtip.

Ian McKerchar, December 2010

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