Thursday 15 January 2009

Priorslee - Yellow legged Gull

It's winter and for me that means getting around the local Gull sites. Yellow legged Gulls are regularly seen at Priorslee and with nothing else of interest on the water, a chance to capture a few record shots showing typical features....

On the water, no legs are visible of course but the slightly darker grey mantle and distinctive white head, much squarer in shape than Herring Gull point to YLG. I'm sure it's not diagnostic but the shorter, deeper bill and lack of the Herring 'scowl' gape usually point one out to me! More black and less white on the primary tips as seen in the gull washing. The pattern of the outermost primaries is quite distinct from Herring, let's leave the subtleties of P 9 & 10 for now.....








Yellow legs visible on leaving the water....






A couple of bonus flight shots!








Which local Gull will feature next?? Glaucous I hope!!