Pictures by Ray Tipper - More about Ray...
More about Ray Tipper
Ray Tipper began his birding on the North Kent Marshes at the age if eleven. He left his native Britain in 1973 spending most of the next 22 years in Hong Kong. As a trustee of WWF he was intimately involved with its renowned Mai Po Nature Reserve. It was in Hong Kong that Ray turned to bird photography, which quickly became his major interest. He gained associateship of the Royal Photographic Society in 1990, and his photographs appear in journals and books throughout the world. Ray guides specialist birdwatching and bird photography tours and since 1997 has led more than 100 tours in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Madagascar. He now lives in the Algarve, where his intimate knowledge of its birds has been recognised by his appointment as Chairman of the Portuguese Rarities Committee.
Lesser Black-backed Gull - Larus fuscus
One of the two large gull species that are common in the Algarve, the Lesser Black-backed Gull is a non-breeding visitor and, by mid-winter, out-numbers the resident Yellow-legged Gull by a substantial margin. Adults, with their obvious black backs are easily identified but immatures with their speckled and blotched brownish plumage are a challenge to separate from young Yellow-legged Gulls. To complicate matters further, large gulls take between 2½ and four years to reach adult plumage, which is attained by way of two moults per year each of which produces a different plumage pattern.
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