Tuesday 5 February 2013

Not Yellow Legged Gull

My good friend Adam sent me an email explaining why my YLW wasn't one.
I think I knew already, but allowed myself to be fooled by the yellow appearance of the legs and not focus on all the other things one must check when ID'ing YLG. To mess up an adult is pretty rubbish though!
Adam said ...
1. It has streaking around the head, YLG would be clean white this time of year.
2. Wing tip pattern is wrong for YLG, but OK for argie HG – broad white tip to P10 is usual for HG, unusual for YLG; YLG shows much more black in the wing tip, HG, especially argie HG has more restricted black (as your bird).  Only P10 to P6 have black tips, with perhaps a small smudge on P5, which is good for HG but not for YLG.
3. Structurally to me it looks quite short, fat legged compared to YLG which is quite long thin legged – I’ll take your word that it has yellow legs, maybe it was a lighting effect?, they certainly look pink in the photos.  It also doesn’t have the high breast often seen on YLG.
4. Dark mantle is good for argie HG – they can look very dark at times.
Trevor did say him and Geoff had a 2nd winter, so if I can get copies of pics of that bird, I'll scan and post them soon.

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