As I was doing a bit of sky gazing, vis-migging (visible migration) I noticed this Herring Gull overhead. There's nothing particularly noteworthy in this but the state of the bird's moult is interesting.
On the wing tips the outer primary P10 has yet to be moulted, but P8 and P9 are regrowing. The whole of the outer secondaries are being renewed together in a block, and the tail looks a bit of a mess. Edit I have relooked at this with Pete and now believe it is P6 and P7 that are regrowing, P8 and P9 are missing. The first feather after the gap is the last secondary and not the first primary.
Today we found a group of five Lapland Buntings in the "big" field, but as I came away it was being ploughed so I suppose that they will move on. There were a lot of birds around, Chiffchaffs being exceedingly numerous. Full details are on the Bockhill page of the KOS website.
This evening as I was putting out my moth traps I noticed large groups of Herring Gulls flying over on their way to roost. presumably on the sea. I suppose the large concentrations come from the numbers following the ploughs busy over much of the area.
2 comments:
Love the moon photograph, very gothic.
it's not actually p8 and p9 you're seeing. p9 is missing, not yet re-grown.
Pete
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