Hi All, Brian Russell and myself journeyed up to the Sunshine Coast yesterday hoping to get some good shots of the visiting Kelp Gull. On arriving early at Cottontree we quickly located the bird some 300-400 metres away on one of the sand banks with an ever dropping tide. Hopeless, no way we could get close and the minutes were ticking by and that up turned Canadian canoe nearby was beginning to look very tempting especially as no-one seemed to know at the caravan park as to who owned it! Mind you there were no paddles and you’ve all heard the one about being up a certain creek without a paddle!! Exactly how we felt.
However after a few quick flights around the sand bar and a few quick naps the Kelp Gull took off with a few Silver Gulls and headed south. After a few hurried flight shots we quickly took off to try and track it down. First stop Alexandra Headland, where there wasn’t much save for a Wandering Tattler, 3 Ospreys, loads of White-throated Needletails and lots of very tame (and large) Eastern Water Dragons.
Next stop Pt. Cartwright, where there was even less, not even wandering Tattler and just 3 Sooty Oystercatchers. So after a fruitless search there we decided to take a different way out from there to our usual route and drove slowly along Harbour Parade along the southern edge of the Mooloolah River looking out for congregations of Silver Gulls. Sure enough, on pulling up at the Kawana boat ramp there was a fish cleaning station with a few Silver Gulls in attendance, right opposite to the main trawler and long lining fleet ( gull heaven). The first house to the left had several silver Gulls festooned on the gangway to the pontoon and above them just 15 metres from us was the big bopper resting on a pylon.
So for the next hour or so we got some great close-up shots as it rested and fed on offal being thrown from one of the trawlers, unlike the Silver Gulls though wasn’t interested in our Big Rooster chips or sausage roll from our favourite local Danish pie shop. This is my 4th Queensland record of Kelp Gull and going on the deep bill it would be an adult male bird. Cheers – Paul W.
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There have been several claims that the lone Kelp Gull at cottontree is a male because of the deep bill. It probably is, but I don’t think you can relaibly sex an individual bird this way. Here is what I wrote on the subject for HANZAB vol 3. Bill depth (at base) ranges from 18.5-23.5 mm in males and 16.5-20.0 in fmeales Bill depth (at gonys) ranges from 19.5-23.5 mm in males and 18.0-21.5 in females SEXING Males considerably larger than females, specially in bill, but overlap in all measurements. Breeding pairs can be reliably sexed on measurements or by observation if side by side (Kinsky 1963). Brooke and Cooper (1979) used NZ data on weight and Bill F from Kinsky (1963) to sex live birds on Marion I.: Weight > 975 and Bill F > 50 taken as male, smaller birds as female; no validation reported. Nugent (1982) produced a discriminant function for NZ birds using total head length and bill depth (taken at shallowest point, about half-way between loral point and nostril): 0 = (0.126 * THL) + (0.289 * depth) – 19.707; females negative, males positive; 156 (99%) of 158 birds used to derive the function and 25 (96%) of 26 independent birds were correctly classified. What are the bill depth measurements of the Cottontree bird?
David James, Sydney burunglaut07@yahoo.com ==============================
________________________________ Sent: Monday, 5 December 2011 8:18 AM
Hi All, Brian Russell and myself journeyed up to the Sunshine Coast yesterday hoping to get some good shots of the visiting Kelp Gull. On arriving early at Cottontree we quickly located the bird some 300-400 metres away on one of the sand banks with an ever dropping tide. Hopeless, no way we could get close and the minutes were ticking by and that up turned Canadian canoe nearby was beginning to look very tempting especially as no-one seemed to know at the caravan park as to who owned it! Mind you there were no paddles and you’ve all heard the one about being up a certain creek without a paddle!! Exactly how we felt.
However after a few quick flights around the sand bar and a few quick naps the Kelp Gull took off with a few Silver Gulls and headed south. After a few hurried flight shots we quickly took off to try and track it down. First stop Alexandra Headland, where there wasn’t much save for a Wandering Tattler, 3 Ospreys, loads of White-throated Needletails and lots of very tame (and large) Eastern Water Dragons.
Next stop Pt. Cartwright, where there was even less, not even wandering Tattler and just 3 Sooty Oystercatchers. So after a fruitless search there we decided to take a different way out from there to our usual route and drove slowly along Harbour Parade along the southern edge of the Mooloolah River looking out for congregations of Silver Gulls. Sure enough, on pulling up at the Kawana boat ramp there was a fish cleaning station with a few Silver Gulls in attendance, right opposite to the main trawler and long lining fleet ( gull heaven). The first house to the left had several silver Gulls festooned on the gangway to the pontoon and above them just 15 metres from us was the big bopper resting on a pylon.
So for the next hour or so we got some great close-up shots as it rested and fed on offal being thrown from one of the trawlers, unlike the Silver Gulls though wasn’t interested in our Big Rooster chips or sausage roll from our favourite local Danish pie shop. This is my 4th Queensland record of Kelp Gull and going on the deep bill it would be an adult male bird. Cheers – Paul W.
******************************************************************************** This email, including any attachments sent with it, is confidential and for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). This confidentiality is not waived or lost, if you receive it and you are not the intended recipient(s), or if it is transmitted/received in error. Any unauthorised use, alteration, disclosure, distribution or review of this email is strictly prohibited. The information contained in this email, including any attachment sent with it, may be subject to a statutory duty of confidentiality if it relates to health service matters. If you are not the intended recipient(s), or if you have received this email in error, you are asked to immediately notify the sender by telephone collect on Australia +61 1800 198 175 or by return email. You should also delete this email, and any copies, from your computer system network and destroy any hard copies produced. If not an intended recipient of this email, you must not copy, distribute or take any action(s) that relies on it; any form of disclosure, modification, distribution and/or publication of this email is also prohibited. Although Queensland Health takes all reasonable steps to ensure this email does not contain malicious software, Queensland Health does not accept responsibility for the consequences if any person’s computer inadvertently suffers any disruption to services, loss of information, harm or is infected with a virus, other malicious computer programme or code that may occur as a consequence of receiving this email. Unless stated otherwise, this email represents only the views of the sender and not the views of the Queensland Government. **********************************************************************************
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