I really like this photo, and I think this was the best photo to come out of both pelagics.
When we come back into shore, we are usually joined by a flock of 50 or so Silver Gulls that hang out the back of the boat. Other than getting in the way of every potentially good shot, they look really stunning, but it is very hard to render that beauty. Most of the time the birds are just too harsh, with bright whites and vivid reds.
On this trip I decided I wanted a good photo of one. I wanted it to be a sharp photo on one with the background being made up of other out-of-focus gulls, just to give a sense of the number of gulls that we usually have around the boat.
And I did exactly what I wanted to, which is a very rare occurence in my type of bird photography. Full Frame, which is very satisfying on a pelagic:) If these birds were rare, people would appreciate them a lot more than they do the "common seagull"; they are in fact very beautiful birds.
Australia,Indonesia,New Caledonia,New Zealand,Papua New Guinea,
IOC 13.1 Subspecies
Group
Subspecies
Breeding Range
forsteri
New Caledonia including Loyalty Is.
novaehollandiae
coastal and inland sw, n WA (sw Australia) and se SA to ne QLD and Tasmania (s, se to ne Australia)
scopulinus
coasts and islets off North, South, Stewart and satellites and at Lake Rotorua, North I., Chatham Is. (e of South I.) and Snares, Auckland and Campbell is. (s of South I.; New Zealand)
Africa (entire continent rather than south of Sahara)
AN
Antarctica
AO
Atlantic Ocean
AU
Australasia (Wallacea (Indonesian islands east of Wallace's line), New Guinea and its islands, Australia, New Zealand and its subantarctic islands, the Solomons, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu)
PAL
Eurasia (Europe, Asia from the Middle East through central Asia north of the Himalayas, Siberia and northern China to Japan)
IO
Indian Ocean
LA
Latin America (Middle and South America)
MA
Middle America (Mexico through Panama)
NA
North America (includes the Caribbean)
NO
Northern oceans
OR
Oriental Region (South Asia from Pakistan to Taiwan, plus Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and Greater Sundas)