stevethehydra
Well-known member
Seen on Christmas Eve in Birchfields Park, south Manchester. Photos taken on maximum zoom at a pretty long distance.
It stood out at first glance because it looked more like a Common Gull than a Black-headed to me on structure and mantle colour, but appeared to have a red bill.
In the photos the bill colour is more ambiguous, but I'm struck by the dark markings on the head and neck, which seem to show up a lot more in some of the photos than others - including both a shadow of a BHG-style "ear spot" and a thick streaky "collar".
There were no other small gulls near enough for size comparison, but it was clearly smaller, and marginally darker-mantled, than a Herring Gull that was a bit further away.
Just an odd Common Gull, or ???
It stood out at first glance because it looked more like a Common Gull than a Black-headed to me on structure and mantle colour, but appeared to have a red bill.
In the photos the bill colour is more ambiguous, but I'm struck by the dark markings on the head and neck, which seem to show up a lot more in some of the photos than others - including both a shadow of a BHG-style "ear spot" and a thick streaky "collar".
There were no other small gulls near enough for size comparison, but it was clearly smaller, and marginally darker-mantled, than a Herring Gull that was a bit further away.
Just an odd Common Gull, or ???