Dear all,
I've attached photos of an adult/4w gull which I'd identified as a Yellow-Legged Gull when I saw it on 23rd December 2005. This identification was based upon the tone of grey on the upperparts (judged as being close to that of a graellsii Lesser Black Backed Gull) , the brightly coloured bill and the structure of the bird. Unfortunately the gull was in water deep enough to mask the leg colour so these features were all that were available to me to make an idehntification.
When I looked at the video of this bird a few days ago I was surprised to see that it did in fact reveal its leg colour when scratching its head and it was pink rather than the yellow I'd expected. So, was it in fact a Caspian Gull? If so, the dark upperparts and bright bill don't seem to fit although the bill is quite parallel sided and 'pencil-like'. The eye is also slightly dark. Somehow it just doesn't seem right for a Caspian Gull in my opinion.
What do you think?
Regards,
Lancey
I've attached photos of an adult/4w gull which I'd identified as a Yellow-Legged Gull when I saw it on 23rd December 2005. This identification was based upon the tone of grey on the upperparts (judged as being close to that of a graellsii Lesser Black Backed Gull) , the brightly coloured bill and the structure of the bird. Unfortunately the gull was in water deep enough to mask the leg colour so these features were all that were available to me to make an idehntification.
When I looked at the video of this bird a few days ago I was surprised to see that it did in fact reveal its leg colour when scratching its head and it was pink rather than the yellow I'd expected. So, was it in fact a Caspian Gull? If so, the dark upperparts and bright bill don't seem to fit although the bill is quite parallel sided and 'pencil-like'. The eye is also slightly dark. Somehow it just doesn't seem right for a Caspian Gull in my opinion.
What do you think?
Regards,
Lancey