After wrongly considering Herring x LBBG hybrid (argentatus x fuscus) for a darker Herring Gull a couple of weeks ago I had a much more persuasive bird today at Athelstaneford. I was out looking for gulls and found a few hundred behind the plough in the village that allowed long and good looks. An hour in and nothing other than usual fare, which was enjoyable enough, but just when I was thinking of moving on the plough went home for lunch and this bird dropped in. Presumably the same bird that Stephen saw in the area earlier in the year, I was quite hopeful of a Yellow-legged Gull until I saw the spread wing.
No dark subterminal band on Primary 5 means that YLG is out and YLG hybrid unlikely. Instead the bird looks like a perfect hybrid to me - spot on for the amusingly colour-ringed 'blue KRAP' from Zeebrugge that featured in BB recently. Comments welcome...
Very interesting bird and good job of getting shots of the spread wing.
ReplyDeleteI would have just assumed it was YLG - I take it that no other taxon fitted e.g. Armenian? Or do they all need the P5 markings?