It always seems that whenever I get to gulls and terns I become very serious. In earlier days and posts I might not have even bothered to include gulls. But ever since I became the proud owner of The Gull Guide North America (2024) (it can be purchased for $29.85 from Thriftbooks) by Amar Ayyash and also heard him give his Keynote Address, Man and Gulls at the BWIAB conference this past Mother's Day, I feel differently about gulls. That's a good thing. My review, from last October, of Amar's book is here. The You Tube Man and Gulls link here is Amar's Keynote Address at a different conference (1 hr, 5 mins long).
Above and two below: Mew Gull (Larus canus)? No. Short-billed Gull (Larus canus)? Yes. Common Gull (Larus canus)? Yes. Here is the Common Gull (Europe) and Short-billed Gull (North America). As already discussed, what's in a name? I'm surprised to write this, but I think it was my favorite gull of the trip, even though this is not what I was expecting going into the trip. I think it's a very pretty gull. I included the not great photo above, because I like photos of gulls on unexpected perches. These are the only Common Gull photos I have and were taken in the same location as the Siberian Tit.
Above and two below: Little Gull (Hydrocoloeus minutus)
I thought this would be my favorite gull of the trip and I do like it very much. We saw hundreds. I took a lot of photos and tried hard to get good photos. I selected these randomly. The dark eye in the dark head conspired against me with so many different birds on this trip. Of the three here, I think I like the middle photo best - a little gull flying past a nesting Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus), of which we also saw many nearly everywhere.
Above and below: Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus), even though its head is brown.
You can see the tiny insects on the water's surface that Little and Black-headed gulls were feasting on. I think of this gull as being like our Ring-billed Gull - it's everywhere, even in parking lots.
Above: Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridacyla) colony occupying an abandoned - by humans - fishing hut of some sort in Båtsfjord. They occupied every ledge or other spaces on all sides of this building. They were a raucous bunch.
Kittiwake taking a break from the noise and competition.
Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus). We saw it often.
Above and two below: European Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)
I have always liked terns but find the Sternas difficult to identify. A couple of years ago I added Cameron Cox's Terns of North America: A Photographic Guide (2023) to my bookshelf (currently 30% off with Princeton). Earlier this spring I confused a Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri) for a Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) on this blog and I was, after a few weeks, corrected by the eBird moderator. Now I think Common Tern and Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) are a more confusing pair. I think the 2nd edition Birds of Europe doesn't really help my confusion (pages 200-201) although I have considered that these two terns may have slightly different features in northern Europe. I pulled Cox's book off the shelf to write this entry. My photos aren't dreadful, but none are particularly good either.
Two photos above and one below: Common Term (Sterna hirundo).
The wide, white leading edge on the anterior wing is a key feature for me. Arctic tern also has this, but it is not so prominent. Having pointed this out in these photos, I can't find a photo in Cox's book also showing this. The bill is also darker red than I would expect it to be.
Above and below: Arctic Tern (Stern paradisaea).
This bird is from a noisy flock that were wheeling around the rocks in, (location Persfjord(?), in Norway. I feel very comfortable with this ID because in these final days of the trip, we were only seeing Arctic Terns. Also, I had the presence of mind to open Merlin and confirmed their vocalizations.
This seems like a very academic post to me. I am completely unqualified to write a scholarly blog post about gulls and terns.
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