Monday 22 August 2011

Grappling the Blues

Thank you Lyndon for the interesting picture of Fulmars at sea off our coast. James Fisher divided the variations in Fulmar colour morphology into four categories: LL=double light (breeds locally in Pembs), L=light, D=dark, DD= double dark, overall being lighter in the south than in the north within the Atlantic. The divisions between these categories is inevitably subjective and I should like to propose the bird in the photograph be designated L which would be consistent with all the records of D dotted in the Pembrokeshire Bird reports over the years, and would also be in accord with my experience of the various forms encountered on a return passage from the UK to Svalbard in the Arctic.