A Matter of Laughing Gulls, and "Occupy Hamburg"

Larus iribundus, a name given to the Black-headed Gull by Linnaeus in 1766, means Laughing Gull in Latin -- I saw large numbers of this gull while visiting my family in Hamburg, Germany -- and so in German, French and Spanish they are properly called  "Laughing Gull". I don't know why the English didn't follow suit, naming it Black-headed Gull instead, and to add to the confusion, they stuck the name "Laughing Gull" on another unrelated gull, Larus atricilla, a gull which is common in North America.

Black-headed Gulls are a rarity along the Northeast coast, but are quite common in Europe. They are a bit larger than the Bonaparte's Gulls, but resemble them in many other respects. They are gregarious and quite tame and unlike the stand-offish Bonaparte's they  come in great numbers when offered a hand-out.  I took these photos with my little Canon Powershot at a canal in the city center of Hamburg (except for the two adult gulls below).

For comparison, adult Black-headed Gull above and Bonaparte's Gull below

 First Cycle Black-headed Gull above

The white triangle in the outer wing is characteristic for both Black-headed and Bonaparte's Gulls. An immature Hering Gull has joined the feeding frenzy.

A Mute Swan takes center spot

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Mute Swans, Black-headed Gulls and Eurasian Coots

 

Eurasian Coots look a little like first winter American Coots

My sister and I took a leisurely stroll through Hamburg City. The English have their afternoon tea, the Germans their afternoon coffee, which is usually taken with a piece of pastry of some sort. Stopping for such a coffee break is one of the pleasures of sight-seeing and window shopping. We first stopped at Starbuck's but finding no seats we moved on to the cosy and old-fashioned Wiener Cafe Wirth  where we had had a hard time deciding among all the delectable pastries which one to pick.

Along the way we came across a small and rather puny encampment on one of the city's  squares proclaiming to represent "Occupy Hamburg".

We are the 99%

Germany is a rich country with a broad well-off middle class. There the top 1% controls only about 4% of the nation's wealth, whereas here in the States the top 1% controls 37%. So "Occupy Hamburg" seems to have little appeal. You might call it a wet noodle of a protest.

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A Lesson Learned: Backup! Backup!

It was an expensive lesson.  It's been several months since I last backed up my small external Seagate 500 GB drive, which contained all my photos,  and it was high time that I did it again. But when I tried, the drive would not register  on my computer no matter what. It was only 20 months old and had never given me any problems before. It's still under the 5 year replacement warranty but Seagate takes no responsibility for lost data. Instead it offers a data recovery software for $99, a pretty steep price I thought and it took me a while to convince myself that I really really wanted those photos back.  


The software worked and I got everything back. I don't mean to let it happen again. From now on regular backups and always to two separate locations in case one of them fails. What a hassle! 

A balancing act

The mallards are enjoying their new wetland pool on a cornfield

A bright wind-swept day at the nuclear power station in Vernon. i looked for A. Pipits on the adjacent cornfield but found none.

Not far from our house is the Scott Farm which grows and sells heritage apples.

It was the location for the movie "Ciderhouse Rules" based on John Irving's novel of the same name. The is the apple pickers' bunk house where much of the action takes place.

A Great Blue Heron enjoying a tranquil moment at the farm pond.

I am flying back to Germany tomorrow to see my sister and brother with their families, and my mother who will be celebrating her 100th birthday. So no posts for the next couple of weeks.

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Three Lifers in a Mud Puddle

Yes, three life birds, all locally rare species, congregating in a puddle in a cornfield: JoAnne Russo of Vermont Green Threads alerted me to it with a message on Facebook  (Thanks, JoAnne)  It took me three days and  three different trips though to get a good set of pictures. Lucky for me the birds stayed around. The third was my lucky day because this time the  American Golden Plover, that I had missed on the first two days, showed up.

He was the star of the show, a juvenile American Golden Plover, still showing the gold speckling on his rump. He is a transient visitor migrating from the northern tundra to his wintering grounds in South America. Most migrate through the Great Plains but a a few show up in the Northeast.

Also present that day were two Black-bellied Plovers which are much more common here

The other star of the show was a Stilt Sandpiper. It too was a life bird for me; I  had just missed it at Sterling Peats during fall migration last year. It was an adult in non-breeding plumage, mostly gray on top. The species breeds in subarctic areas and migrates to the interior of South America. It prefers pools or lagunes to tidal mudflats, and therefore the bird must have felt quite at home in this mud puddle.

From a distance, with their long yellowish legs, they are easily confused with  Lesser Yellowlegs but for their long drooping bill.

The Dunlin was my third lifer. Here in this photo the Dunlin is on the left and Stilt Sandpiper on the right. They are very similar in size, but the Dunlin is much stockier with a thicker bill. 

I had seen White-rumped Sandpipers on the coast on Plum Island before but they are not often seen inland during their long-distance migration from the Canadian Arctic to Patagonia. 

Three White-rumps preening, showing their white rumps

There were several Pectoral Sandpipers in the crowd. The following two photos show the sharp pectoral demarcation that gives the sandpiper its name.

And lastly  there were several Killdeer. They are so ubiquitous that it's easy to overlook them.

We have been having beautiful summer-like weather.The mud puddle is drying up, getting smaller by the day. In the morning it's been quite foggy, but it burns off by 10 AM. On a foggy field Canada Geese are fattening up before migration. Actually they don't migrate very far, flying just a little south of here to the lush golf courses in Connecticut.

Farm stores are busy selling local produce.

Cheers!

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