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.