Larus cachinnans on ORG

[marsmuusse]

Finally...
Last weeks I've addde some pages and pictures of Caspian Gulls on ORG. Still a lot to do, but also already a lot to read and enjoy, so I just wanted to say, if you have time, have a look at this beautiful taxon:
http://gull-research.org/cachinnans/01cyaug.html

Already added about 150 rings and several Pdf's, including tables to find out if yoyr backyard birds are closer to hybrids, or they indeed are the real thing!
Many many thanks to all photographers for using their pictures. I hope we can build a reference of ringed birds, which may guide us when encountering unringed / difficult birds...


(Picture: Lars Krogh - Denmark)

[JanJ]

Great work Mars, I,m impressed!

JanJ

[marsmuusse]

Added another 150 ringed birds. Many thanks to Armin Deutsch and Ruud Altenburg, but many thanks a s well to a large number of photographers!
Page with cachinnans rings: http://gull-research.org/cachinnans/cachrings.html

For several hybrid birds, the tables from the BB paper have been added to show partial scores.
below: Larus cachinnans hybrid 4CY & 5CY green 07P2 December 2009 & January 2010, Deponie Pohlsche Heide - Minden, Germany (52°23'05N, 08°46'45E). Picture: Armin Deutsch.

[Ronald Klein]

The gull at Armins photo comes from a mixed colony, but I see nothing against a pure Herring gull. If the parents known, we can not exclude an extramarital copulation.

[marsmuusse]

Hi Ronald,
The first sentences reads: Green ring from Poland. Ringed as a chick on May 20 2006 in Wloclawek reservoir, central Poland (52°39'N, 19°08'E). Mother known as hybrid Caspian x Herring, father unknown. This bird is very Herring-like and has a high score (20). The P10 pattern, with a short tongue and thick black band within the white tip, is outside that seen in any pure Caspian in our sample. Perhaps the only Caspian sign is seen in the bill, which is relatively slim with only a slight gonydeal angle. Bird is discussed using table 1, below the pictures.

You are right when you say we do not know the credentials of the parents, unknown is just unknown, and even when chicks are followed in the colony after ringing, to get an idea of the parent birds that are feeding the chick, there will always be room for uncertainty. Fortunately people say my two sons are just like me!

[Ronald Klein]

Wloclawek-colony existed already in the 1990ies, majority Herrings. But now I think Caspians overwhelm the Herrings, like in German inland. Greg knows more...

[WolfgangSchweighofer]

Fine thing - Caspian Gull on GRO! Stayed undiscovered by me for several month....

I did not expect to find my pictures of ringed CG from Ukraine and Poland here; please excuse the very bad quality! Nowadays I have updated my equipment. Maybe this winter will bring again a lot of ringed eastern CG to the ice of authorities port in Krems. Then my 5D will manage better pic´s

Concerning green 70P6 "ringing data pending": Gdansk DN 25376, Kuznica Warezynska Reservoir, Dabrowa Gornicza, Slaskie, Polen, 6 6 2010, 50 22/ 19 12
Ringer was Pawel Kmiecik, who tragically died in 2012.

[marsmuusse]

Hi Wolfgang,
Please, you don't have to apologize for photo quality. Anyone who visited the larger lakes and rivers in central and eastern Europe knows the distances to resting groups and the sheer difficulties to access some places. I myself live in a place where we just through some old bread out of a car to easily attract many birds, but that's not how it always works.
So many thanks for making public your images, and in their own way they will undoubtly serve as a nice reference for people interested in this beautiful taxon.

Best wishes for 2014, to everyone on the forum!

[marsmuusse]

Last month I received a DVD with many pictures of ringed cachinnans, of which 631 (!) birds were added to the section on ORG. Many thanks to Armin Deutsch from Germany, who is a frequent ring reader and photographer at Pohlsche Heide Deponie at Minden. Situated west of Poland (right in the main migration direction), not too far from the breeding colonies, Armin gets loads of ringed birds, both metal and plastic and he is a keen photographer and digiscoper as well.
Hope these data may be of any help or a reference, and hopefully it will give us all a bit more insight in the individual variation in cachinnans. After going through all these images, I can only completely agree with Armin, who said it sometimes seems that the variation in Ukraine cachinnans is even larger than it is in Polish cachinnans!

It's just incredible to see the page with ring codes on the site growing this fast, now with consecutive numbers from series...

http://gull-research.org/cachinnans/01cynov.html

Just some pictures by Armin Deutsch, to get an idea of what the situation there looks like.