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Gull help please (1 Viewer)

Binocularface

You've all got one...............!
Hi

I'm hoping someome can help confirm the ID of this gull please! I was quite confident of ID in the field, but am beginning to doubt myself after looking at my (low quality) images!
Any help appreciated!

Regards
Tristan
 

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Hi Tristan,

The legs look a bit pink (hard to be sure) but it looks quite a lot like a michahellis Yellow-legged Gull. Very small white spots in the primaries, fairly dark grey (again hard to be sure of the tone though) and the head shape looks okay. Wouldn't like to stick my neck out on these photos though. What did the legs and mantle tone look like in the field?
 
Hi Andrew

The mantle was quite dark, reminiscent of Common Gull mantle tones. The legs appeared Yellow,though not as bright as I would expect from a Lesser B-B Gull (though colouration may have been dulled by mud).

Regards
Tristan
 
Tristan,

It looks on the face of it like a YLG, but then the image names rather give away your thoughts.

Where and when was it taken? If near home and recently then an adult would be early, but not out of the question. Hybrids are always a possibility.

Stephen.
 
According to Rare Bird Alert there was one at Port Carlisle today (was that you, Tristan?) Yellow-legged Gulls are beginning to arrive. There were c.150 at Redbridge, Hampshire yesterday evening and 48 on the Lower Test Marshes on Sunday. There are other odd records from all over the place (Derbyshire, Yorks, Leics, Bucks, Cambs, etc, etc).
 
Bluetail said:
According to Rare Bird Alert there was one at Port Carlisle today (was that you, Tristan?) Yellow-legged Gulls are beginning to arrive. There were c.150 at Redbridge, Hampshire yesterday evening and 48 on the Lower Test Marshes on Sunday. There are other odd records from all over the place (Derbyshire, Yorks, Leics, Bucks, Cambs, etc, etc).
Hi Jason

It was not me that reported the bird to RBA, though it was the same bird!
Like I said, 'in the field' I was quite happy that the bird was an Adult Yellow-legged Gull but once I got home and looked at my pics I began to panic!

Regards
Tristan
 
get in close to the monitor trev - i thought pink too at first, even after a few mins i couldn't decide but if they were yellow in the field that'll do me....
 
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Tim Allwood said:
get in close to the monitor trev - i thought pink too at first, even after a few mins i couldn't decide but if they were pink in the field that'll do me....

Can't get any closer!...and there's an easy comparison to be made with the yellow bill.
Don't understand the bit about ...'pink in the field...' ?
 
Grousemore said:
I thought the camera never lied?...the fact is that the legs are pink in the pics.
You must have better eyes than me as I cannot be 100% of leg colouration from my images. As I said the legs certainly appeared to be yellow when I was observing the bird in the field.

As the leg colour is in the pics is uncertain, what are the opinions on head/bill structure, primary pattern (if this can be seen accuratly), general structure etc?
 
Interesting thread. I've only been serious about a year so my ID is pretty dodgy still. But I pulled the image in to PSP and sampled the pixels across the leg. The camera definately sampled pink as the pixels were weighted red over green. Any hint of yellow and the pixels would be equal red/green weighted.
I have yet to see a YLG. How much does the colour vary?
 
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