ML126925181

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Blogpost here http://aviantendencies.blogspot.com/2011/12/little-out-of-county-jaunt.html. After third year black-backed gull. Dark pink legs, mantle at least as dark as graelsii but probably just slightly darker, pale irides, yellowish bill with dark subterminal (dusky) markings on both mandibles, thinly-distributed blotchy brownish streaking on the head, nape, sides of neck and sides of breast, obvious concentration of dark streaking around the eye, bill about comparable with Herring Gull's in size and strength of goyndeal angle, all-white tail, p10 with black outer web and small mirror, p9 with black outer web and black subterminal stripe and white apical spot, p8 with black outer web and large white tongue on inner web and black subterminal stripe and white apical spot, p7 similar to p8, p6 similar to p7 and p8 but with less extensive black in outer web, and p5 with very thin black subterminal marking, primary coverts (esp. the distal feathers) with obvious brownish cast contrasting with the dark gray of the mantle, fairly broad white secondary skirt interrupted slightly by a rearward intrusion of dark gray in the inner secondaries (symmetrical). Age appears to be best assigned to after third year, or adult, with a slim possibility that the bird can be called a 4Y. Pyle (Part II) says that 4Y (of which less than 5% are assignable to this category) are best identified by small p10 mirror and no p9 mirror in combination with "more extensive black markings" in the outer primary coverts, in contrast to after 4Y birds which are slaty gray here or with "limited blackish on outer webs" of the primary coverts. At this point I am not confident enough this bird is a 4Y though I cannot rule it out.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 60D

ISO

1000

Focal length

420 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/3200 sec

Dimensions

2901 pixels x 2159 pixels

Original file size

3.06 MB