OK - let's be clear...I'm not claiming a record of Baltic Gull in Guernsey. However, yesterday at Chouet Landfill I saw a LBBG which I think may well have some Baltic Gull genes. The bird was strikingly distinctive...being slender in the body, relatively long-winged, and with obviously dark-mantle and wings (allowing for the fact it is still in immature plumage). Compare the photos from Chouet with some I took in Morocco last December of LBBGs (which have a decent amount of Baltic genes - in my book!). I also set out below a photo of a Norwegian cr Baltic Gull I saw a few years back at Quarteira, Portugal.
Of course, given the problem of hybridisation with intermedius and graellsii in many of the Norwegian colonies I know I am going to have to see a colour ringed bird from a pure colony to be able to truly claim a Baltic Gull in the Channel Islands...so I am very reliant on my gull ringing friends in Northern Europe!
Whatever...for me this has become the Holy Grail of gull watching in Guernsey...with LBBG my undisputed favourite bird (if it is possible to have such a thing)...and amongst this complex...surely fuscus is the most striking and beautiful of the lot?!
LBBG (perhaps with some Baltic genes?) at Chouet Landfill 02 April 2014 (c) PKV
Possible Baltic Gulls Morocco December 2013 (c) PKV
Baltic Gull, Quarteira, Portugal December 2010 (c) PKV
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