Windy Whetsted and some Herring Gulls

Quite breezy today, rocking and rolling my quite lightweight tripod. Mild though for the time of year, all things considered.

On the eastern pit on the central roost there was an interesting looking gull - I thought at first from its size and general colour pattern that it must have been a Herring Gull, Larus argentatus. In the UK these are almost always the smaller, less formidable and lighter in colour subspecies argenteus. The adults have a yellow bill with a red spot on the angle of the bill that is known as the gonys. However this bird had no red spot, but a black vertical bar across the bill which is just subterminal. This is likely therefore to be a third winter young bird,

This bird is quite light grey with only a hint of darker streaking on the head. This doesn't look as dark overall especially around the head and neck or as brown in the wing as most of the pictures of the species but ssp argentatus would generally tend to be much darker on the head, and browner on the wing coverts, etc and as this is almost certainly argenteus, it should still be a righteous identification. It certainly isn't dark enough on the hood or in the grey on the wings to be a young Lesser Black-backed Gull, and it is very unlikely to be a rarity. The picture below shows it a long way away, still on the central roost, amongst the smaller black-headed gulls:

You cannot see the black band on the bill very clearly in the picture above, but it shows up rather better below:

This next picture gives a good impression of the squarish head said to be characteristic of Herring Gulls in general although ssp argenteus and females both tend to have somewhat rounder and smaller heads in general in comparison to ssp argentatus and males respectively. It just goes to show the usefulness of taking many photos of the same bird!

There was some degree of darkening to the feathers on the head/neck region (although not as much as in the guidebooks and internet pictures) and this was visible in some of the pictures of the gull with its head facing forward. This is also a good chance to (possibly) agree that the eye is light coloured rather than black, as in the first two years of life:

The grey back of the neck is slightly more visible in this picture where the head is pointed backwards. You may also see a hint of brown on the wings, although this certainly isn't visible in all the photos:

In this photo as the bird is flapping its wings and about to take off, there is a definite impression of brown in the primary and secondary coverts (or scapulars?). In this picture you get a good view of the black bar on the end of the tail, and the streaking around the neck as well:

While in flight the patches of brown on the coverts are quite clearly visible, and maybe there is a hint of light brown on the overall wings. The pattern of black wing tips with white primary tips and a white mirror on P10 fit really well with a third year argenteus bird.

The main problem with the above id is that the bill certainly looks like a third year winter bird, but the overall plumage is still actually a little bit more like an adult winter bird. But in the end I may just have to think this was an issue of the flat light available, and the limited camera lens and usage that I have, and leave the issue until I am more experienced! I should also check all the rarity possibilities!

Here are a couple of younger herring gulls, again Larus argentatus argenteus. These could be first winter or second winter birds, I really can't get the detail at this distance.

This is another photo of the same pair - again you can see the dark fleck on the back of the head of the gull on the left.

Here the gull on the left bends down to pick up something that might be food. The eyes do look dark, as is said to be true for both first and second year birds:

and here is the successful result

and here is the adult common gull, Larus, on the very right, compared in size to several black-headed gulls and the first/second winter herring gull.

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