I got Nichola to take me out today so we could enjoy a walk in the still,
bright sunshine - a world away from the shite weather overnight. We headed to
Watermead Country Park South; I knew it would be busy and we knew there was a
risk that the easy footpaths would actually be underwater - but it was fine
and we enjoyed a good hour and a half walking around. I was hoping that there
would be common waterfowl and gulls to point the lens at, and I was without
any other optics on the basis that if it was not close enough to photograph it
didn't matter what it was. But I was completely unprepared for any
ornithological interest beyond the common stuff.
There is a large car park at this site, and the nearest area of water to it
has over the last couple of decades at least become a feeding area. I've
moaned about that before, but at least today I could see lots of floating
lettuce leaves and grain spilled out all over the place - much better than
bags full of loaves of white bread. As I watched the Mallards, Mute Swans,
Coots and Black-headed Gulls constantly fighting over the spoils I suddenly noticed this floating about
like a lumbering biscuit ....
My immediate thought was juv Glaucous Gull, based on its size (pretty big,
Herring Gull sized and perhaps a tad larger), pink basal section of the bill,
apparent lack of grey/black tones and brown-centered primaries with white tips.
The legs were bubble-gum pink coloured, and in flight the primaries just
appeared pale.
This is far from a prime site for large gulls. And I am far from a larophile.
Large gulls are not my favourite group of avian beings, and I just don't get
excited about the minutiae of identifying them. Still I couldn't ignore it,
and I got a good number of shots as it loafed about in between shorts bursts
of flight.
I put the news out locally, and an hour or so later whilst waiting in the car
whilst Nichola nipped into a supermarket I managed to download a phone app and
transfer a representative shot from the camera to my phone. I sent it through
to Andy Mackay (ex-county recorder and current custodian of the VC55 bird news
services). He immediately commented that it looked a little dark and was,
perhaps, a hybrid .... sigh.
Once I got home, I sent a series of photos to Andy, Steve Lister (another
ex-county recorder) and Carl Baggot (current county recorder). Carl and Steve
certainly have a lot more recent experience with large gull ID. Pretty swift
feedback was that this would in all likelihood have been recorded as juv
Glaucous on distant/fly-by views, but with the benefit of my photos there were
clear anomalies - but it was an interesting gull.
eg: black on the bill appears to extend too far up toward the nostrils, rather
than a clear-cut black tip; primary projection appears too long; undertail
barring too extensive; tertial pattern too 'Herring Gull' like; looks like it
has moulted some mantle feathers, and despite it's size the head-shape and
general jizz make it look a bit daintier than might be expected.
I think it's fair to say that when any large gull is 'interesting' it means
the ID is far from certain. The consensus is that this is likely to be a
Gaucous x Herring hybrid, and quite possibly a second-generation hybrid at
that. It's likely that this bird will be back in the area so maybe others can
have a look and see if anything more definitive comes out.
In the meantime, here's a much easier to identify duck that refused to come
out in the open.
