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Gull id uk (1 Viewer)

ste

Well-known member
This gull stood out among the thousands of herring gulls .( The white headed gull at the top). I thought it may be a casp but the paleish eye has given me doubts. In the field it did show a small ammount of hindneck streaking. I did not see the open wing.

Does a pale eye rule out adult winter caspian gull?

many thanks Steve
 

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looks like a good candidate from what you can see. jizz, bill shape and colour, longish legs, mantle colour and apparent all white tip to P10 look good. Pale eye is fine, if not the most common variant, (a majority show dark mottling in a honey-coloured iris giving a dark appearance in the field).

Cheers

Pete
 
I might as well ask about this bird seen on the same day. Again I think its an adult casp but would like other opinions.
many thanks
Steve
 

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Could well be argentatus. Difficult to see without better shots. The bill seemed to be rather parallel-sided in the first bird, but this may just be the lack of definition. Admittedly there's no subterminal dark mark, and the bird looks bulky.
 
Both of these birds are Herring Gulls. The first was identified in the field as likely to be an Argentatus and the second was identified as an argenteus Herring Gull.
 
Could well be argentatus. Difficult to see without better shots. The bill seemed to be rather parallel-sided in the first bird, but this may just be the lack of definition. Admittedly there's no subterminal dark mark, and the bird looks bulky.


Argentatus with big/long bills don't seem to be all that infrequent. Relatively short and pink legs also signal this plus the big pale iris.

Yes I'd agree with the second bird being argenteus. Certainly both are Herring Gulls (or if they are cachinnans then all the other adult birds around them would perhaps be candidates too ;))
 
I'm in the Caspian team for this one...;)

Ho-hum, looks like I'm going to be out-numbered and outgunned again but.......why isn't Pete's bird just an Argentatus without a streaky head? It has a fairly pronounced gonydeal angle, an angular rather than domed head and is similar in size, shape and proportions to the other Herrings.

Andy.
 
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