Wednesday 31 July 2013

Ring-billed Portugull, Lisbon 30 July 2013


Having just returned from a two week family holiday in Spain and Portugal I thought that I would post this beauty first - a moulting first summer to second winter Ring-billed Gull on the seafront at the Praça do Comércio in Lisbon. This unexpected transatlantic bonus was pretty much the last bird that I saw on the whole trip and was the successful conclusion to a short gull photographing stroll along the front.

This individual seemed quite large, so presumably is a male as it did not seem that much smaller than a nearby lusitanius Yellow-legged Gull, more of which in a future post...




4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great! Hope to see you soon. :) Bernardo Barreto (Birds & Nature Portugal)

RB said...

Excellent find - Portugal is really underwatched for gulls. Your bird is a 1st-summer moulting to second-winter (not a second-summer). Cheers Rich

Morg said...

Cheers for the comments guys.

Rich you are right about the ageing - I was meaning to say second calendar I think. As for gull watching in Portugal I'm sure there must be lots of scope.

Bernardo, I'll post some of the birds you found for me over the next week or so. Great to meet you.

Geoff

Iona said...

This is cool!