…Tokyo. Or more exactly an hour’s drive to the north of Tokyo in Narita, the city where the hotels (and airline crews) that service Japan’s main international airport are located. Yes, my new roster was posted online yesterday, and the question you’ve all been asking - where will Charlie be starting his Old friends…World Tour 2008? (You’ve not been asking? That’s a little disappointing, but what the hey…) - is northern Japan, about 6000 miles from family and friends as they celebrate New Year…

Oh well, it could be worse. At least this particular trip means I get the whole day off (rather than a half day birding and a long flight home in the evening), and assuming that Japan doesn’t actually seize up on January 1st the way the UK does, I’m going to get a train up to the fishing port of Choshi - a trip I will have made almost exactly two years before. Choshi should give me an opportunity to find and photograph a whole range of birds I don’t see anywhere else normally, including - and hopefully this will keep you in some state of anticipation - many gulls that are rare vagrants outside Asia (including Vega and Slaty-backed).

And at Choshi you can get very close to the gulls…Oh yes, Charlie? Oh yes, indeed…here, for example, are some photos I took of Vega Gulls last time I was there. Close. Am I right, or am I right?

Vega Gulls Larus vegae
Choshi Port, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. 30 January 2006

The Vega Gull Larus vegae is the common “Herring Gull” of North-east Asia, breeding on islands and cliffs in the High Arctic and wintering widely throughout eg South Korea and Japan.

Structurally Vega is typically ‘ill-proportioned’ - often looking rather short-legged, front heavy and rather large-headed and long-necked, with a fairly deep chest but flat belly (though some can appear oddly small-headed or fuller-bodied).

The head is typically rather flat, with a rounded rear crown, while the bill is typically mid-length to long, with a fairly obvious gonydeal angle, and often a fairly obvious hooked tip to the upper mandible.

Standing birds typically look “slope-backed”, with the lower body angled down, and the slightly drooped wings nearly touching the ground. They have a “weak” rear end, with a fairly short primary extension beyond the tail (only slightly longer than that shown by e.g. Slaty-backed Gull L. schistisagus) though some can look longer-winged. The very largest individuals can also look rather more barrel-bodied and powerful, approaching Slaty-backed or larger individuals of American Herring Gulls in overall structure.

Adult winter Vega Gull Larus vegae

 

Adult winter Vega Gull Larus vegae

 

Adult winter Vega Gull Larus vegae

 

Adult winter Vega Gull Larus vegae

 

Adult winter Vega Gull Larus vegae

 

Adult winter Vega Gull Larus vegae

 

Adult winter Vega Gull Larus vegae

 

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3rd winter Vega Gull Larus vegae

 

3rd winter Vega Gull Larus vegae

 

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2nd winter Vega Gull Larus vegae

Juvenile and first winters are highly variable, some appearing dark overall while others appear rather paler. Most show largely dark bills with some dirty dark pink basally, which becomes increasingly obvious by about January.

Paler birds can be somewhat suggestive of a pale Thayer’s Gull L. thayeri, being a light grey-brown tone with grey-brown concentrated around the eye; obvious, clean looking fringes to the mantle and wing coverts; and obviously notched, dark-centred tertials. They show obvious barring across all of the greater coverts, which often bleach paler still by mid-winter and appear very worn by February. Many of these paler birds appear somewhat lightly built.

Progressively darker birds can be much more suggestive of American Herring Gull. They have a dark brown sludgy look to much of the underparts (through until Dec-Jan), though even by October/November this is usually relieved by a rather pale and more spotted vent and undertail coverts, and a somewhat paler forehead, lores, chin and throat. The upperparts are also rather more darkly marked, with dark centers to the scapulars and often more solidly dark tertials on the closed wing which show a broad whitish fringe variably marked with brown “notches”.

In flight, first winters show a very dark, contrasting secondary bar and a fairly weak pale blaze across the inner primaries.They also have a notably light brown (or even whitish) rump and barred or spotted uppertail coverts, which contrast strongly with a typically narrowly white-based blackish tail (though some birds can appear to show a significantly narrower black tail band). The outermost tail feathers can often show pale and dark “laddering”, especially basally. The underwing tends to appear rather plain and brownish.

1st winter Vega Gull Larus vegae

 

1st winter Vega Gull Larus vegae

 

1st winter Vega Gull Larus vegae (note ‘pale window’ on inner primaries)

 

 

1st winter Slaty-backed Gull Larus schistisagus
(note similarity to vegae, but also bulkier size, longer legs, ‘bleached’ outer greater coverts, and hint of ’string of pearls’ on outer primaries)