Friday 20 December 2013

Trouble with gulls

After dipping the Parrot Crossbills at Budby this morning (I got there too late, and they didn't reappear in the following 3 hours), I had a look at Cotham Landfill this afternoon. Things started well with a straight forward 1w Glaucous Gull, and then a 1w Iceland.

Glauc
Glauc
Glauc
Iceland

Things then went downhill from there, first with a dodgy Herring hybrid (which I couldn't photo), and then what looked initially like it might be a 1w Kumlien's Gull. I've never seen Kumlien's before, but thought this bird looked interesting - pale with fine patterning to its uppers, and an eye-catching primary pattern. In flight it looked like a white-winger, albeit with a darker leading edge to the other wing formed by the outer primaries, and a darker tail band and bar across the secondaries (features which are shown by Kumlien's I believe). My worry was (and still is) that it was quite large - about Herring Gull sized, and the bill looks a bit long too...






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