It was long legged, long winged, had a fairly large angular beak, a dark eye mask, and dark bases to the greater coverts. It was also noticeably larger in overall size than the nearby Herrings. These features all pointed towards it being a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull, however there were two things that were bugging me. The tertials had more notching than you'd expect, and there seemed to be a bit too much spotting on the inner greater coverts. Also, the scapulars perhaps aren't as dark as they are on some birds. I got a few glimpses of the tail and the open wings but failed to get a good shot of them.
It eventually took off and gave me good views of the clean white rump and dark inner primaries, although again I couldn't get a good shot.
I would appreciate some more opinions on this bird. My own opinion (not that I'm a gull expert - far from it!) is that it is a Yellow-legged Gull. I just can't see it being a juvenile Herring Gull, but I suppose it's possible that it's a hybrid.
Other birds present were an adult Mediterranean Gull, two Greenshank, 11 Redshank, five Common Sandpipers, two Whimbrel, 88 Curlew and one Dunlin.
In other wildlife news, this Hornet Hoverfly was near Aller Brook.
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| Volucella zonaria |
Hi Laurie - it looks fine for ylg to me. Grt coverts look good and well patterned tertials within variation shown by ylg. Structure all good. Always like to get upperwing to be certain but it can be tricky to assess if views not prolonged and good. Having said that really dont think it's herring or hybrid and would be ridiculously pale for a leeb. Nice one!
ReplyDeleteMatt
Thanks Matt. Good to get a juv a Passage House at last! If you haven't looked already, it seems as if your YLG was ringed in NW Spain. Its interesting to know where our YLGs come from.
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