Fwd: Black-tailed Gull

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Graeme Chapman < naturalight@graemechapman.com.au>
> Date: 14 March 2018 9:30:59 AM AEDT
> To: martin cachard < mcachard@hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Black-tailed Gull
>
> Hello Martin,
>
> Thanks for all that info.
>
> This Black-tailed Gull thing certainly started me searching through all my old records and it turns out the slide was wrongly labelled.
>
> I actually took the pictures at Lee Point in Darwin in May 1982 and that record is documented in the guide Birds of the Darwin Region.
>
> So your Cairns records still stand!!
>
> The northern Peregrine is a very astute discovery and I’d guess you are certainly dealing with the same individual.
>
> My search caused me to read a 1982 diary, field notes on all sorts of things, Yellow Chats, Zitting Cisticola and the NT Little Shrike-thrush which Phil Gregory says is actually an Arafura Shrike-thrush. I always thought it was rather different to east coast birds. Another one for the twitchers!!!
>
>
> Cheers
>
> Graeme
>
>
>
>
> On 14/03/2018, at 7:54 AM, martin cachard wrote:
>
>> good morning Graeme, my #1 Hero,
>>
>> it’s nice to hear from you.
>>
>> looking at your image of what is DEFINITELY a Black-tailed Gull on your website, the bird that I saw here in Cairns on Friday would appear to be looking very similarly plumaged to yours.
>>
>> I wonder Graeme when (month & year?) you took this photo, because it would be the FIRST confirmed record for the Cairns region.
>>
>> this means that the 1st year imm that Terry Reis and myself found on 01/04/2013 would be the second confirmed, and that Friday’s adult (or ‘sub-ad’/2nd year non-br imm) that I saw would be the third definite record for the region.
>>
>> and whether the bird I saw on Friday was an adult, or a sub-ad/late imm, we now know that there has at least been two different individual Black-tailed visiting Cairns, or maybe even three…
>>
>> maybe we have a regular individual coming here annually? I wonder…
>>
>> and if one Black-tailed Gull is a regular visitor here, then I wonder if it has been visiting Cairns as regularly, and for as long, as the northern hemisphere Peregrine Falcon that is here at the moment…???
>>
>> there are images taken by the same photographer as far back as late 2014, and in every Austral summer since, of a visiting Peregrine in Cairns.
>>
>> it appears to be of either sub-spp ‘japonensis’ or ‘tundrius’, and has been ‘summering’ here in Cairns CBD and environs.
>>
>> the bird has been using, and currently still is, the very same corner of a particular building as a favoured perch – especially after dawn and late in the afternoons.
>>
>> you have to wonder that this Peregrine may very well be the very same individual coming here annually…???
>>
>> I only became aware of this Peregrine ever having been in Cairns less than 2 weeks ago, and this was after a phone call from Keith Hutton in Leeton, NSW !!
>>
>> birds never cease to amaze me!
>>
>> and I love your work Mr Chapman !!!
>>
>> happy birding everyone…
>>
>>
>> martin cachard
>>
>>
>> solar whisper wildlife cruises,
>> daintree river, FNQ.
>>
>> & trinity beach, cairns, FNQ
>>
>>
>> From: Graeme Chapman < naturalight@graemechapman.com.au>
>> Sent: Tuesday, 13 March 2018 11:30 AM
>> To: mcachard@hotmail.com
>> Cc: birding-aus@birding-aus.org
>> Subject: Black-tailed Gull
>>
>> Hello Martin,
>>
>> There is am image of what I think was a Black-tailed Gull on my website.
>>
>> Taken many years ago at the Cairns Esplanade. Just exactly when I don’t know at present – I’ll have to do a lot of digging into past records.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Graeme
>