View From The Shed by Shaun Finnie - WHERE IS CASPIA, ANYWAY?

WHERE IS CASPIA, ANYWAY?

I've written about gulls before. It's safe to say that I'm not a fan of them. I know that nature exists outside of the laws, rules and emotions that we place upon each other so there's no way that any creature can be seen as good or bad, virtuous or evil. They all exist simply to exist and to propagate their species. But if I were to anthropomorphise gulls then I'd have to give them some of the worst of human traits. They're sneaky, sly and opportunistic. They eat the young of others with no remorse and they even try to steal my chips. Like all nature, they have no knowledge of why they act as they do and they've evolved to be as good as they need to be to survive in their particular niche, but that doesn't mean that I like them.

Over the last few weeks we've had quite a few visitors to Old Moor looking for a couple of birds that we do not see on the reserve (or even in the area) all that frequently. The three most common questions that visitors are asking me at the moment (after, “How come the infamous Blue Door has been painted grey?”) are, “Are they still here?”, “Whereabouts are they?” and worst of all, “How will I recognise them?”. In case you hadn't guessed from the title, 'they' are two young CASPIAN GULLS and I dislike them intently.

Here's another reason why gulls hold a special place in my heart (and it's not in the good place alongside Red Pandas and the music of David Bowie). So many gulls look like lots of other different kinds of gulls. And when they grow up a bit they look like a completely other group of gulls, all of which still look very different from their parents. It's as if they've been created as some kind of cosmic joke, just to annoy birdwatchers.

But if you're still determined to pick these birds out in a crowd, here's Volunteer Shaun's in-depth guide to our juvenile Caspian gulls. I say it's mine, but big chunks of it are ripped from my handy-dandy book of how to identify confusing species. As you can guess, a large portion of that book is given over to gulls.

When I was a lad (insert your own joke about dinosaurs here) we had the humble Herring Gull and that was it. They were plentiful and even someone with no interest and even less knowledge of birds could recognise them. They were the quintessential 'seagull'. However recent genetic studies have shown that as well as this 'pure' parent Herring Gull species there are now at least six evolutionary distinctive offshoots. Thanks, science. Of these, the two species that visit England most often are the Yellow-Legged Gull and the Caspian Gull. They're both very similar to Herring Gulls but different enough to now be classed as separate species in the own right. To make things even more complicated, they can all interbreed and hybridise so those six Herring-like species (or more – even geneticists can't agree on the exact number) can become an infinite number of sub-species over a few generations. It's making my head hurt.

If you come to visit the reserve, our Caspian Gulls can usually be seen to the left of the Lookout family hide, on our Island Number One. We call it that because it has a big number one sign on it. There's a clue in the name. The birds in question are both juveniles and confusingly they look the same shape and size as a young Herring Gull. To make matters more interesting there is a group of Herring Gulls on the island as well, among which our target duo have been spending much of their time. The Caspians both have jet black beaks and dark, sunken eyes. The feathers around the eyes are very dark too, as if they've been heavily smudged with smoky Kohl like a 1920s screen starlet. The guidebooks all say that a Caspie's forehead slopes backwards a little more than other Herring-based gulls, as if they've been slapped across it too many times and it's caved in a little. Honestly, I don't see that too much in our individuals but I'm no expert. Sometimes these small details can be very small indeed. The feathers on their backs and the edges of their wings are sort of a scalloped mousey brown with white flecks. They have a dark bar just above the 'elbow' of their closed wing too – that's across the outer greater coverts to those who like technical names of feather areas. The head and neck of a young Caspian gull is somewhat cleaner and whiter than that of similar gulls as well.

All of this goes to show how difficult identification of gulls can be at the best of times. A lot of it is location – knowing which birds are likely to be in the particular area you see them. But our particular birds are not where they would usually be seen so that's an added layer of confusion. For me, the best thing to do is to ask a grown-up. If our head warden and other, more experienced birders on the site all agree that these birds are Caspian Gulls then I'll take their word for it and record them as such. I can see some gulls that they look a bit different from those around them so that must be they. This is when birdwatching steps beyond the bounds of being a simple calming hobby and into a whole new realm of scientific seriousness. It's up to each individual how far they want to delve into that particular metaphorical rabbit hole.

I hope that these birds are still here by the time you read this. They've been on the reserve for a while but that's no guarantee that they haven't moved on between the times of writing and reading. A photo of the latest Sightings Board should be attached to this post but even if they aren't here at the moment I'm sure that some others of their species will be around soon enough. Or something that looks like them will be, just to confuse us all over again.

So gulls in general? Love them or loathe them they have just as much a right to exist as any other creature on Earth, including us. But I just wish they came with name badges.