Photos: Presumed Yellow-legged Gull. A large bird with slightly darker mantle than argenteus, no mirror on P9, extensive black on P5 and yellow legs although admittedly only pale yellow. The dark patches on the bill would make this bird a fourth winter and may account for the paleness of the yellow legs.
Quiet around Weston. A gull id'd as Yellow-legged coming to bread this morning. The gull roost this evening not very productive but better views of the presumed L.a.argentatus. Will upload video stills tomorrow.
It's a tricky one alright but a combination of things do perhaps suggest it's not a pure mich. Hard to say about mantle shade from the pics, with no other Larid for comparison, but if you think it's a bit dark then maybe some influence of Lesser Black-back. The legs can often be wishy-washy in mich but usually in mid summer when moulting and after breeding when I guess they are often physically (and hormonally) at a low ebb. In spring they should be good and yellow. If there's pink in them on a (near) adult (adults can get dark in the bill in winter so not necessarily a sign of immaturity) then that is odd. The fine head streaking, esp on the nape, would also be odd at this time of year. Structurally the head and bill are a bit small and cute for a typical mich but they vary a lot, of course. Having said that, I bet a lot of people would have happily called it a mich and left it at that. They might even have been right!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments John. With the features atypical of any species, I'll put down as a hybrid for now.
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