More and more Gulls

Guess I've taken too many gulls shots...well, since they're just in front of my place. The study is getting tough and I've become busy once again and too lazy to go out birding anywhere farther than the beach in front of the dorm. I really want to go to Furui-chi once again and planned to do so for several weekends but failed easily because of my laziness. So the gulls are my only friends.

This Vega Gull looks wierd because its secondaries and three of its primaries(p10-p8) are still juvenile feathers, so it should be a first-year adult or fourth-year bird. It also has a small blackish spot on its lower mandible too.

Some stretching shots...

Something interesting. Lots of the gulls are molting their greater coverts,
creating a strange white wing-patch look.

Some variations of the Vegas' head streaking

Yeah, the Slaty-backs are still around.

Most 'taimyrensis' still have clean white head in October but with worn primaries.

The same 3rd(or 4th?) year 'taimyrensis' showed up again on Friday but not anymore.

Its p9&p10 are still the old juvenile feathers, while other primaries are growing new.
The secondaries are mostly juvenile feathers with few short adult feathers growing.

A very strange find was a single female Mandarin Duck flying briefly across the beach. Not a lifer though, cos I've seen them several times in Thailand, but it's the first time here in Beppu. Never thought the Mandarin Duck would live near the ocean, but strangely found that most Mandarin populations in Korea are also coastal living.