Part-time Birding: A Very Odd Gull Indeed

A Very Odd Gull Indeed

Mudbank Lane, Exmouth, Devon
I had a brief look after work. Not a great deal going on when I first turned up. A pair of distant Red-breasted Merganser, a single Brant Goose and the regular Gull and Wader species. Matt Knott then turned up and we both started scanning. Matt picked out a Gull that I must of initially overlooked or it turned up after I had scanned that particular group.

Anyway it made us both stop and wonder. Now I am the first to admit that Gulls are my weak point in my birding skills. Yes I can tell the obvious but I do struggle a tad with ageing and subtle differences of the Herring Gull taxon. This bird made us think Hmmm European Herring Gull but a weird one at that and worth a closer look. We both went through the thought process. Subtle hints of American and possible Argentatus etc. etc.

So on to the bird in question. It was a 1st winter individual. The bill colour was pink with a black tip (almost Glaucous looking in structure). Pink legs. One of my shots shows barring on the arse end of the bird. As far as I've read, this is something to look out for when looking for American Herring Gull but it should be excessive and I'm not sure my pictures have captured that much barring. My pictures don't reflect the colouration (I expect Matt has better ones) but it was a drab brown (very uniformed on the neck and chest (another pointer to American?) It was also aggressive to near enough ever other Gull that came into its personal space. Perhaps its just a grumpy Gull but I find myself asking "Is this a trait of a particular species or subspecies? It was noticeably larger than the other Gulls, which actually goes against American as they are generally similar in size and structure. I did think that it wasn't dark enough to be American (text book bird) but I now know that that isn't a reliable driving factor in the ID process.

So then are we on to Argentatus? Now I'm not that great on that subspecies so I need to refresh myself to assess the possibility of this. The only other options left are - Hybrid (due to the size but with what?) but I'm not really on board with this. Or its quite simply a very odd looking European Herring Gull, probably the most likely option.

Just to note, that there was a report of an American Herring Gull on the 18th February at Hayle in Cornwall photo here American Herring Gull, Hayle Estuary, Cornwall unfortunately there's not a lot of detail in the photo to compare but interesting that there has been (and could still be) one out there in the South West.

If nothing else it was an interesting Gull and gave Matt and I something to mull over as there was little else on offer. At present its in the note book as a European Herring Gull but undecided as to whether is Argenteus or Argentatus but there's something going on with this bird in my mind. I guess its the curiosity in me and I hate it when I have to just let a species go a "Its just a weird one". I guess its the OCD in me, that needs to exhaust all avenues to tag it to a particular species before I do admit defeat. If I do come up with anything else I will of course update.

Here are my photos.