ring billed gull? (1 Viewer)

[durham giant]

Hi all, recently at a local common, herring and black headed gull roost i noticed a 2 different gulls, both look like common, but they were larger, about 10 to 20 percent, had a fair amount less white on the primaries, on one it was nearly missing, and they had larger rings on there bills. could these be ring bills or are they just variants? There was another gull too, like a herring, but it had a virtually white head, with a small area of very faint streaking behind the eye and on the nape. Did not see legs or wings. It had a long sloped head.

thanks,
Durham Giant

 

[Cristian Mihai]

Your descriptions seems to fit Ringed-bill and Caspian, but without some pics this is only an assumption...

 

[durham giant]

thanks cristian, that is what i assumed, but i didnt' have my camera. I will try and get some soon. the caspiian type bird (the second one) seemed very long. I don't know any thing about the different herring gulls, but this bird stood out for so thats why i posted it.

 

[HH75]

From the descriptions given, I would struggle to rule out Common Gulls and Herring Gull, to be honest. 2nd-w Common Gull has far less white in the primaries, thicker bill bands, and, while they would be the same size as adults, males are larger than females. Many local Herring Gulls are quite white-headed by now, and this feature alone is of little use at this time of year: talk of a 'long sloped head' is potentially interesting, but no more than that in the absence of further detail, I'm afraid.

 

[durham giant]

thanks harry. I assume there was a mix of common gulls in this flock and these were by far the largest of there type, which made me dismiss them from the rest. with the other one, it seemed longer, had a longer head and it looked elegent compared to the herring gulls.

 

[SteveClifton]

I agree with what Harry said. Caspian Gull is extremely rare in the North East, with only the odd record (probably only 5-10 in Co Durham, and most of those in Cleveland), so on rarity value alone your large gulls were probably just Herring Gulls. As Harry says, at least half of them will now be in their white-headed summer plumage. Decent photos would be needed to get your record accepted at county level if you did find a Caspian, but don't give up looking! Caspian Gull has got to be one of the most commonly mis-identified, but probably most under-recorded scarcities in the UK.

Steve

 

[durham giant]

thanks all. i will try to get pics, but i probably won't get down to the roost for a while. There was only about 10% of the herrings in white headed plumage. Anyway, i feel this is a case of the one that got away...