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Message: <blockquote data-quote="halftwo" data-source="post: 1620463" data-attributes="member: 45720">Gull Practise Moore NR: Hybrid Glauc/Herring?A few hundred gulls coming and going - back and forth from the tip nearby to drink and bathe.All the common species there - Herring gulls outnumbering every other combined. Young birds (ie brown jobs) the vast majority of the flocks.A few Pochard, Gadwall, Shoveler and Tufteds shared the water with half a dozen Little grebes and a couple of Great cresteds. Heron dozed.Then in came an adult gull which sent my heart racing. The first thing that struck were the white wing tips - but there were dark (dark grey rather than black) bands across one or two primary tips - but not nearly enough dark for the usual Herring type, it appeared.The clean head, lacking the brown streaks of all the other Herrings, stood out too. Pale eyes with a dark hint of an eye line across the face, a flattish head - but the bill not larger than other Herrings. Legs pink.In flight there was perhaps one primary which was dark - but none of the usual black pattern. The mantle and wings were a typical Herring adult shade. Another thing which made it stand out: it kept itself apart from the flock.  And I didn't have my Gull id. book with me.Later research gives a tentative id. as a possible Glaucus x Herring hybrid - or maybe an Arctic type argentatus Herring gull - with some moult. (It was missing the odd primary and a few secondaries, perhaps exaggerating the already restricted dark areas on the primary tips.) Other adult Herrings didn't seem to be in moult.Well, perhaps not an earth-shattering rarety - but an interesting individual anyway.As I left a Kingfisher shot under the bridge over the Ship Canal and a flock of Fieldfares went over. And a single Golden plover, calling plaintively from a brightening sky.</blockquote>

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