"First" summer is technically the second summer, i.e., one year or so after hatching or, in banding terminology, SY. I'm not sure where this terminology comes from, but Sibley uses it in his guide and shows the sequence of gull plumages from juvenile on. In traditional (Humphrey-Parkes) molt terminology, this plumage is the first "alternate" plumage, as opposed to the first "basic" plumage, which is synonymous with first fall or first winter plumage (i.e., the first plumage following juvenile plumage). Clear enough?!
Marshall Howe ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jim Fitzpatrick <[email protected]> Date: Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 1:04 PM Subject: [mou] Franklin/laughing gull To: mou-net at moumn.org To Kim and all the gull discussion folks, I have a question of terminology relating to the calendar. Kim discusses plumage of a first summer bird. What does the term "first summer" mean? As a bird-bander I am familiar with Hatching Year and second year because all birds ages are keyed to the year end. Does "first summer" refer to its year after being a juvenile? Is there then a "first fall" term and to what would that refer? Do these terms mix anyone else up or is it just me? I hope you don't think this is a wise crack because I am not very good with gulls and I want to be able to understand the identifying marks and the meaningful timing. Would it not be easier to use the HY, SY, TY etc. terminology or am I missing a more important point in the season/year/age/molt question? Jim Fitzpatrick --- This mailing list is sponsored by the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union. Mailing list membership available on-line at http://moumn.org/subscribe.html. ----- To unsubscribe send a blank email to mou-net-request at moumn.org with a subject of unsubscribe. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20080615/b6a11d31/attachment.html
