ML236786051

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Notes by Colin Jackson: The wind was strong from almost due south probably gusting at Force 7. Tide was high and the sea surface very rough. Lighting was good – sunshine behind though with some cloud cover, but quite bright. As we were watching a flock of LCT and CT quite well, CJ noticed a dark bird above the horizon and immediately saw it was attacking a tern – it was a skua! We watched it for 5-8 minutes with me following it in the scope and RN mostly attempting to photograph it. The skua was about 700-800m off-shore and moving gradually south. When first seen it was in hot pursuit of a tern and appeared to be successful in making the tern regurgitate its dinner as it then settled on the water below where it had chased the tern. It stayed there for a minute or two and showed a medium-light grey-brown upperparts with paler grey-brown flanks, paler across the neck which then accentuated a darker crown / upper half of its head. With the distance and movement it was hard to see more detail though the breast seemed a similar colour to the flanks. General impression on the water was a relatively long, drawn-out bird, mostly mid grey-brown, paler below and with a dark head. It then took off and headed south with effortless flight taking on the wind with no trouble unlike the Sooty Gulls we had seen previously from this same site in strong wind. The impression was of a medium sized, quite slender bird with long wings, about the size of a small Sooty Gull, certainly not larger but with longer wings, a longer tail and more agile flight. What was very noticeable was the clear absence of the white flash at the base of the primaries. The upper wing and back were pretty uniform grey-brown – appearing noticeably darker when the bird swung up above the horizon and against the paler sky, but a lighter mouse-brown colour against the background of the sea. Scrutinising it closely as it moved, while it didn’t have the white primary base, we could make out a clear thin white streak along the leading edge of the outer primaries. The underwing was more or less uniform though with slightly darker edges to the ‘hand’ of the wing tip. In flight, the belly was now clearly visible when it banked and showed almost white – and again the suggestion of a darker breast (confirmed from the photographs). What I clearly noticed was that the tail was quite elongated and pointed with a clearly dark / black terminal third or half and what appeared to be a white rump above that – seen especially when it then took off after another tern and was diving with its back towards us showing the back – rump – tail well. It was clearly not in the South Polar / Great Skua team of large, very chunky, dark birds. Between Pomarine / Long-tailed / Arctic, the latter always has a white flash at the base of the primaries and, lacks the presence of a white line along P1 and P2 on the leading edge. One or two shots do show a somewhat more ‘deep-chested’ appearance, but actually to no greater extent than what Long-tailed can appear. The overall impression and structure of the bird was one that did not strike as right for Pomerine, however. It appeared more agile, narrower-winged and generally lighter on the wing, tipping the scale for us in favour of it being a Long-tailed Skua. LTS are also renowned for sitting on the water which our bird did twice. We asked advice from Klaus Malling Olsen: "A difficult case, as photos indeed are of very poor quality. however, complete white leading edge of hands suggest 2 all-pale primary shafts, which indicates Long-tailed, also, white belly and very pale rump could fit a juvenile, which will be my best guess here." "Your flight and size description exclude Pomarine, which have the flight of a medium-sized or large gull. LTS is the lightest of the skuas, with a tern-like flight, typically appearing lighter than in other skuas. So for me, your impression fits Long-tailed which is supported by the photos."

Technical information

Model

NIKON D500

Lens

200.0-500.0 mm f/5.6

ISO

2500

Focal length

500 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/3200 sec

Dimensions

1018 pixels x 677 pixels

Original file size

304.71 KB