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Is this a yellow-legged gull? (1 Viewer)

Clive Watson

Clive Watson

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit ampheta
During a recent family day out to the seaside I decided to take the opportunity to get a few shots of some of the local Herring Gulls. I confess, I was snapping away without paying a vast amount of attention to the subject of critical bird identification, but on reviewing the shots, this dark gull with solid tertials got me wondering - is this a juvenile Yellow-legged gull?

Photo taken at Joss Bay, Broadstairs, Kent, on 25/7/10.
 

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JANJ said:
Juvenile YLG it is.
Note rather pale head with a darker mask - relatively dark coverts. Tertial pattern rathe variable in YLG (and LBBG + Herring). Wear in scapulars further indicate YLG.

http://www.gull-research.org/ylg1cy2cy/1cyjuly/mich2379.htm

JanJ
Click to expand...

Hi JanJ,

Interesting that although you noted some wear in the scaps there is no sign of any newly moulted feathers coming through yet, As I stated previously I have not seen juv YLG before but this late in the summer I would have perhaps expected some newly moulted scapulars and wing coverts showing in this species by now.
Would you say this is a typical bird or have I got my YLG moult timing out of er......... timing;)
 
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Thanks Jan. Those are exactly the features that got me thinking about it. It's a bit embarrassing that I didn't really notice it at the time, I just scanned the gull flock for the more obvious candidates, saw nothing that really caught my eye and so just assumed they were all Herring Gulls. Plus I'm always cautious about using bins and camera in an area where there are lots of semi-naked women!
 
some more michas from july, bulgaria to study: http://www.helsinki.fi/~rauste/juvmic/

http://www.helsinki.fi/~rauste/juvmic/smallcoll/

http://www.helsinki.fi/~rauste/juvmic/micflight/

note how fresh this ind. looks by the end of july: http://www.helsinki.fi/~rauste/g/data/pics/a//C_IMG_69539.jpg

variation in scapular moult is apreciable, some can look fresh (e.g. later hatching), some already in full scap moult but a few moulted scaps are the normal score in end july/beg. august 1cy michahellis is guess. also, note variation in tertial and greater coverts pattern: http://lou.bertalan.de/gulls/m_phi.php?bid=130&grp=michahellis 1cy


hope i'll put some more (and some nice chicks) in this section soon. ;) http://lou.bertalan.de/gulls/m_grp.php?g=michahellis 1cy
 
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