ML647138256

观察细节

Continuing friend of Ant's, now an adult multi-year repeater. Gull rather difficult to pick out in the context of hundreds of Ring-bills and Herrings, but a great spot by Kathy T only ten or fifteen minutes after we arrived and the three of us were scoping together. We had considered and rejected various Herring Gulls in the meanwhile, but once spotted, this bird was immediately distinctive. It is just barely smaller than the smallest of Herring Gulls, larger than all Ring-bills, but has the softly rounder head of the latter, and a narrower yellow bill than Herring, with only the merest red chip on the outer part of the lower mandible. Distance was near the edge of getting passable images with my camera; hopefully Jeff's are better, but my attached show the wingtips, with their gray fingers extending from the basal mantle color, the rich-pink leg color and the narrow mostly yellow bill, if you squint a little.