Bonaparte’s and Iceland Gulls around the barrage this morning (along with the Little and Med to add to the mixture). Iceland wasn’t behaving for photos but the Bonaparte’s was close enough to get one or two. Also Raven over and Peregrines making a racket.
Last year’s bird for comparison (following Lol’s question in his comment):
Glamorgan Bird Club 
Nice photos Peter 🙂 Do those black marks on both P9s suggest this is a 2nd winter bird – ie NOT the returning adult from last year? I was interested in the amount of black on the head when I saw this bird on Sunday, as it appeared to have LESS black on the head than that of the Heliport bird shown in Rob Mitchells photographs – but I didn’t see it in flight on that day – any thoughts?
If you search the web for photos of adult Bonaparte’s there are quite a few examples of apparent adults with variable amounts of black on the outer web of P9. The bird in the bay this time last year had faint smudges of black on P9 (see pic added to the original post). Could be that the black varies from year to year, or that it increases as birds age – couldn’t immediately see anything on this sort of variation in Bonaparte’s from a quick web search. If you look on Birdguides Alan Cripps got a great shot at the heliport and the amount and pattern of black looks the same.
Agree with Lol, great photos Pete. Also agree with Lol that there might be 2 Bonaparte’s Gulls! I managed a number of poorer quality record shots of the Bonaparte’s Gull at Cardiff Bay this afternoon and so far cannot find any mid outer primary dark marks as shown on the bird you’ve photographed this morning. It appears that that they are different? Do you have any flight shots that don’t show the mark because I’m wondering whether it’s always on view. There were 2 Bonaparte’s in the Bay this time last year and it looks to me there are 2 again today, perhaps for a while? I have a recollection that the Ogmore bird a few years back had that same prominent mid-primary dark mark. I’ll stick some photos on here in a bit of the bird from this afternoon. Cheers
Could be then, just emailed Jake with regard to black marks on P9 and Andy is trying to find out whether these black marks are a trait of second winter (late 2 cy/3 cy birds). Interesting looking back at the photos on Iris, birds in 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2015 have all shown black marks on P9 (on the bird I photographed last March they were just faint smudges) with just the bird in 2010 appearing to have clean P9 feathers (although photos not ideal for telling for certain). As far as I can see the black marks are on the outer web and visible in any clear shot showing the upper or underside. The black marks are grey on the underside and fainter so they may not be visible in a distant shot of the under wing though. Think we need to get more photos of any Bonaparte’s that’s seen!
Peter, I posted the question of black marks on P9 to the North America gull facebook site (needed to join it first!) and got a couple of responses -one saying that it would be dangerous to conclude that fully adult birds never have the black marks and then one linking to this document. https://gullstothehorizon.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/the-p9-conondrum/
This clearly shows that P9 marks in BHGs are very common. I would guess from all of this that an adult Bonapartes could easily have a black mark on p9. One respondant did say that other black marks in addition to a P9 mark would point to a 2nd winter. Interesting if you look at the last shot of bonapartes on my web site (taken last year at Cosmeston) http://andyburnsphotography.zenfolio.com/bonapartes/h8522e5a#h3ab69d68
there is a black spot at the base of P10 which looks very similar to this bird – https://plus.google.com/photos/103465823166118508417/albums/5897992258678821121?banner=pwa
which is a confirmed 2nd winter bonapartes from the US. This could point to last years Cossie bird being a second winter. I am not sure why the black in P9 would be more extensive this year if this weeks bird (your shots and Lol/mine) is the same as the Cossie bird last year. Shots 9&10 on my site show the extent of the black mark.
Mark’s shot certainly seems to be a different bird.
Are there any flight shots of the birds this year seen before the weekend? ie was it Mark’s bird or Lol’s?
It would be very good if all the images from the last 3-5 years could be put in one place to view at the same time.
Thanks for checking on that Andy. I must admit from having looked at numerous ringed Black-headed Gulls this winter and seeing the variation in the black and general patterning of the primaries that you know are 5+ years old I was rather inclined to think of these marks as variation. Would love to know if they stay the same form year to year and can be used a id mark though.