Gull (white-winged) ID - Cottenham, Cambs., UK (4 Viewers)

[martin.m]

Hi all,

I spotted this white-winged gull in Cottenham yesterday and wonder which it would be. No previous experience with either, would be inclined towards Glaucous rather than Iceland, had it not been very similar in size to the LBB Gulls sitting around it. Any help appreciated.

Sorry for low quality photo, but taken on a sort of "safari" birdwatch from a car with a sleeping toddler in the back seat, so couldn't even roll the car window down...

Thanks!

 

[Butty]

I take this to be the bird which has been reported for some weeks in this area and is accepted to be a glaucous gull (which is what it looks like to me in this view). From memory, it's been aged as 3rd-year.
A good self-find! 🏅

 

[martin.m]

I take this to be the bird which has been reported for some weeks in this area and is accepted to be a glaucous gull (which is what it looks like to me in this view). From memory, it's been aged as 3rd-year.
A good self-find! 🏅

Great, thanks! I saw it reported on BirdTrack from a few spots around Cottenham earlier (including Long Drove where this is from), but wasn't sure there weren't any Iceland around as well. Don't own a spotting scope (not much use in a running car anyway) so don't usually bother checking the large gull gatherings around there with my binoculars, but this was just a small group so easy to spot even through my bins or on my camera. Chuffed with an unexpected lifer given my lack of patience with gulls

 

[exilipes]

I take this to be the bird which has been reported for some weeks in this area and is accepted to be a glaucous gull (which is what it looks like to me in this view). From memory, it's been aged as 3rd-year.
A good self-find! 🏅

"One has been reported" is never the best way to start an identification. A quick internet search reveals 2cy Glaucous and 3cy Iceland both present around here this year, and both of these had strongly bicoloured bills with pink bases, so clearly not the bird in question here.

Am only looking on a phone so difficult to see much detail. Does this bird definitely have "white wings"?

 

[Butty]

Am only looking on a phone so difficult to see much detail.

Never the best way to start an identification.

 

[exilipes]

Never the best way to start an identification.

Agreed. I do mine in the field

 

[Mark Lew1s]

"One has been reported" is never the best way to start an identification. A quick internet search reveals 2cy Glaucous and 3cy Iceland both present around here this year, and both of these had strongly bicoloured bills with pink bases, so clearly not the bird in question here.

Am only looking on a phone so difficult to see much detail. Does this bird definitely have "white wings"?

I agree - I’m struggling to make out any primaries here

 

[Butty]

They look as though they're missing.

 

[Mark Lew1s]

In which case it’s pretty hard to rule out a herring gull

 

[smiths]

The primaries are largely hidden behind the lesser black-backed gull to the left of the bird in question, and the small part of them that could be visible fades into the background (dark field).
No subadult white-winged gull has this much black on its bill.
Herring gull for me.

 

[Butty]

The primaries are largely hidden behind the lesser black-backed gull to the left of the bird in question

That's nowt but pure Cambs fen muck (smudged over by bluish photo-artefact) visible between the rear-end of the bird at issue and the gull to left of it. There is nothing of our bird's rear extending behind anything.

 

[Jos Stratford]

That's nowt but pure Cambs fen muck (smudged over by bluish photo-artefact) visible between the rear-end of the bird at issue and the gull to left of it. There is nothing of our bird's rear extending behind anything.

I agree with Smiths, the primaries are there and almost invisible to the background - if you zoom in, it's pretty similar to the bird to the right that also partly fades into the background

 

[Butty]

Sorry for low quality photo

Got any more? - as low or lower, identical-looking or different.

 

[martin.m]

Got any more? - as low or lower, identical-looking or different.

Here's what I have (except for near duplicates). Good point about the primaries - they do indeed seem to be missing. Oh well...

Thanks all for the helpful discussion!

 

[Butty]

the primaries - they do indeed seem to be missing

Yup.

 

[lou salomon]

No, they are there and they are black. It's a subadult Herring Gull.