[custard]

The bird appears to be a first summer moulting in to second winter or second winter based on comments recieved as follows: has a pale iris and rather 'rounded' secondaries. Apparently Fuscus generally ages a year faster than the other two races and the fact that this bird does not show any third generation remiges, retrices or wing coverts would suggest it is unlikely to be Fuscus. It has also been suggested that the grey tones in the upperparts are rather too pale and that the primaries are not dark enough.

The bird does show whitish underwing coverts (reminiscent of Ist W Caspian Gull) with brown 'lines' running through them, a white head and body with little streaking on the breast and white undertail coverts with neat dark arrowheads. Also a white tail with a neat dark band. However, apparently the other two taxa can both show these features. The structure often looks good, recalling Common Gull and Caspian Gull and appearing less bulky than adjacent LBBG's with a narrower bill, but sometimes looks less impressive.

It is an interesting bird and I would urge people who are interested to go and see it for themselves. The general advice from the experts is that Fuscus is probably only 'doable' if it has a leg ring on and that this bird has features which would suggest it is perhaps not one.

[username]

Ta for the info 'custard'....illuminating!
So Harry's suspicions were correct, this is not, in fact, a first winter bird......!

[Killdeer]

Yeah, thanks for all that custard.

Wish I'd known about those anomalies before.