Tuesday 19 January 2016

Juv/1st winter? white winger at Newquay Fish Factory




My first impression was that its head looked like a common gull with a 'kind' face, round head and smaller than herring gull sharp beak.  Lovely stand out pale brown barring.  Size against Herring  difficult to tell as angle is everything and I only had my little lumix.  It was keeping company with a gang of 1st year and adult Herrings so might hang around for someone else to get some good pics.
In the top 2 pics its the bird on the left.  I think I'd put my money on Iceland as it wasn't discernibly larger than the Herring Gulls whereas the Glaucous we saw at Ynys Hir last Jan was obviously larger, like a lesser BB, and had a flat head with huge beak.
Of course it could be a hybrid!