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Case Summary for:
Submission No 266: Laughing Gull Larus atricilla, Cairns, North QLD April 1988 to at least 22 October 1989. Verdict: Accepted As with case 265 this record concerns a published account (Aust. Birdwatcher 1989) of a Laughing gull Larus atricilla on the Cairns esplanade which joined a bird already present at the same locality since December 1987. This individual arrived in April 1988 and stayed until at least October 1989. As mentioned in case 265 both birds were seen by many observers as they fed and roosted with the resident Silver Gulls. The published description is rather brief, however, the accompanying photos in the Aust. Birdwatcher write-up (and another in Aust. Birding summer 1995 issue) readily confirm the identification. There remains once again only the question of ageing. Judging from the published ABW description and a colour photo in Aust. Birding (dated May 1988 ie. shortly after the bird was first seen), the gull was clearly in a first-year plumage at that date, as evidenced by: mostly grey upperparts, white under-body with greyish or grey-brown wash on breast and along flanks, an all-dark bill, dusky tips to the underwing-coverts, a thin white trailing edge to the wing, and a prominent dusky terminal band to the tail (thinly tipped white). In his analysis of the ageing and moult sequences of vagrant Laughing Gulls recorded in Australia (HANZAB Vol 3: 564), gull expert David James reached the same conclusion re the bird’s ageing. Importantly though, he did not state whether the bird was in basic or alternate plumage when first sighted, merely referring to it as an ‘immature, apparently in first year’. Judging from the published descriptions and photos as compared to those in Grant (1986), there is absolutely no doubt the bird was a first-year and, judging by the extent of duskiness about the head and under-body, almost certainly in basic plumage when first seen. From his own field observations, James (loc. cit.) noted that the bird was in, or moulting to, second immature breeding plumage when he saw it at Cairns in October 1989. He also concluded that the bird was on a moult cycle ‘probably in sequence with the austral seasons’. The committee has no hesitation in unanimously accepting this bird as a first-year Laughing Gull when initially sighted in April 1988. It was then noted to be in second alternate plumage when last seen in October 1989. Representing the 5th record of this species to be accepted by the committee. References and Bibliography:
Tony Palliser |