Iceland Gull Again

Learning about and identifying gulls takes a great deal of time and patience. Ideally you need to travel to where the gulls are common. I've done that with quite a few species, but not yet for Iceland Gull. The latest white-winger at Shawell looks darker in the field than other juvenile Icelands I've seen. It shows quite distinct markings across the primaries on its folded wing and has quite dark underparts and well marked upperparts. The primaries are a darker buff colour compared to the usual white primaries I've seen on other juveniles..

My thoughts turned to Kumlien's Gull, but to clinch that I would need to photograph the spread upperwing. I didn't manage that on Tuesday, but with the help of a young Herring Gull today I managed to see get a glimpse (see the video). Initially it looked as though it had dark outer webs on the outer primaries, but further review of the video showed that it doesn't have the right pattern for a Kumlien's, so an interesting Iceland Gull it is in my opinion.

Juvenile Iceland Gull, Shawell, December 16th 2017

Juvenile Iceland Gull, Shawell, December 16th 2017

The Video is Best Watched at HD Quality.

Juvenile Iceland Gull, Shawell, December 16th 2017