The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Having started to get interested in Gull ID Ive hit an early wall and Im getting confused with gull topography and would very much appreciate some help with this one: Are 'mirrors' on the primary feathers of gulls the same topographical feature as 'white primary tips'? I ask because most photographs on the net when discussing 'mirrors' point to the underside of primary feathers, ie on the wing that is furthest away from the viewing observer. To simplify, the (usually) 4 white spots seen on on a gulls black primary feathers - are they white primary tips or mirrors or are they one and the same thing? Do all Gull species have the same number of primaries and secondaries? Replies very much appreciated.

As an aside I observed a ringed (presumed) Herring Gull at Kirkby on Bain Gravel Pits the other day - it had an orange ring on its left leg with the number 2029 and a metal ring on its right leg if anybody is interested in following this up. More questions to follow!

Thanks,
Matthew.

Matthew,
Trying to educate myself with gulls is hard and I cannot help sorry, I bought a good book though (Olsen & Larrson) but its quite pricy!
Gull rings can be reported via BTO / EURING http://blx1.bto.org/euring/lang/pages/colourform.jsp?coord=pete.rock@blueyonder.co.uk.
Have a look at one I found last year here:http://jhbirding.blogspot.com/2009/02/kirkby-gravel-pit-gulls-5-february-2009.htmlhttp://jhbirding.blogspot.com/2009/02/coningsby-lincolnshire12-february-2009.html
The detail you get back is quite interesting! I believe this might be a ring coding colour of a FERA ring from a landfill tip."(Orange (tall) ring with green / black code (4 numbers) on tarsus and BTO metal ring on other leg.

c/o Phil Bone, Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA), , Sand Hutton, York YO41 1LZ, United Kingdom.

e-mail : fera.gulls@gmail.com

note 1 : used numbers are from 0001 till 9999. "


Hope it helps a bit?

_________________
JH Birding
http://jhbirding.blogspot.com