Vengeance is Mine!! Maybe.

EDIT: I'm leaving the original text as written, more edit-y stuff at the end.

Thanks to a dedicated gull-basher [you know who you are, and so does everyone else - WELL DONE!] I have finally seen an unequivocal, absolute, definite Caspian Gull!

YEEEEEES!!!!!!!!!

:D

You who have been reading this blog have seen only the tail end of a long, frustrating, and sometimes humiliating quest of mine - which isn't quite over, as I still want to find one myself [[masochist!!]] - the near-mythical Devon Caspian. I know its only a gull, and while its smarter than any Herring or Yellow-leg, its still a white-headed gull sp. that isn't an Audouin's... But there's something about Caspians, I think, a quality that makes them more special than the others - not so much the rarity, either - some balance of a plumage that's actually pretty, and proportions that seem right, you know? They make small beady eyes work.

Ok, stopping the larophilia....

It was another mid day phone call from Joe "What's a forward defensive shot???" Ray that started things, and as he'd cracked a metatarsal [or something] and was hobbling around on crutches, I gave him a door-to-door lift [being a Saint and so on... ;) ] over to Blackhill Quarry near Exmouth. We went more out of good form than expectation - gulls like flying off, after all - but lo and behold it stayed very put, and what a bird!

The Caspian was with a good sized mob of assorted Herring, LBB, and BHG of all ages and had the attention of a small group of Devon's Finest when we got there [no names, naturally]. We spent an hour admiring it, with bouts of Joe canvassing for gen on the Alps [maybe he should write a book - 'Birding on Crutches' - this is his fourth set, after all!] and everyone else taking the piss... :) Juveniles are a bit trickier than 1w [at least, when they sit still and pose nicely....] but still very distinctive once you got on it, and once you had easy to pick out again. The tertial thumbnails in particular stood out very much - between the dark tertial centres and very black primaries - letting you find the bird without optics [though I doubt this'll help in the future, you never know...]

I said no more larophilia, didn't I? I'll spare you my dragonfly burble, too [how nice is that?].

Caspian Gull. Brilliant!

EDIT: 2/8/10 So, it's been a week since the online photo issue started up - though it seems a lot longer... After doing a LOT of research, including the famous BB paper, I have given it a lot of thought and I cannot see how this bird was a "clear / obvious Yellow-legged Gull". People who know a lot more than me about Caspians in particular don't think it is one {a Caspian, that is}, but none of them [that I am aware of, please feel free to correct me] actually saw it. Still, I feel I can't say 'whatever..' to assorted Betters without firmer ground to stand on, so I'm downgrading it to a ? on my personal List.