ML297151181

Age and sex

Immature Unknown sex - 1

Observation details

Very odd bird that I'm puzzled about. Flew in during late afternoon, arriving slowly like LBBG and Herring Gulls do (unlike Ring-billed's twists and turns). Flight views once I realized it was different were brief, but I thought it had a pale window near the wingtips, similar to those of other immature gulls. When perched, the bird looked very "frosty" and pale above. It had an odd pale wing panel of sorts on the folded wing. A few features almost suggested Iceland Gull to me, but other features clearly went against that. Size-wise it was similar to LBBG, smaller than Herring. I thought it had a more rounded head like Iceland, unlike the flat and angular heads of the adult and young LBBGs. To my eye, it looked like there were some very pale gray mantle feathers coming in, which would go totally against LBBG. However, the wingtips looked very dark, going strongly against Iceland Gull. When I really zoomed in on photos, it appears there may be slightly paler spots, but these are not claimable based on the lighting and photos. Another feature that I thought went against Iceland was the very bold dark chevrons/anchor marks on the scapulars/mantle. Hopefully it will appear again in better light and a bit closer. EDIT: Comments from several experts confirmed this to be a Herring Gull. I forgot to look at the number of HERG I had before switching, but it was likely to have been around 10.

Technical information

Model

Pixel

ISO

49

Focal length

4.7 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/2.0

Shutter speed

8339/1000000 sec

Dimensions

3036 pixels x 4048 pixels

Original file size

2.08 MB