Possible Kumleins Gull? - Hartlepool Fish Quay

[sidwemn]

Photos of the Iceland/Kumleins Gull at the Fish Quay today. Difficult to photograph as the only time it was on view from the Old Town Wall it was into the bright sun.

The bird does show some dark in the primaries, secondaries and tail as well as well marked tertials. Certainly an interesting bird.

Cheers
Martyn

[sidwemn]

One more shot

Martyn

[Mark Newsome]

A few more shots of this interesting bird. I wasn't too convinced at the time - the wing tip pattern was changeable depending on the light and the iris looks very clean (not peppered dark in typical Kumlien's). Derek Charles (Irish gull watcher with plenty of Kumlien's experience) is in the pro-Kumlien's camp, not sure whether it'd pass the 'Gibbin's criteria' though.
Wish we could get one of those belting adults with proper dark wing tips.

[RCT]

Mark et al
Seemingly the fact that the primary coverts are as dark, or even darker than the primary markings seems to rule out Kumliens (apparently??).
Strangely no one seems to know where these brown winged Iceland types, that make up a reasonable proportion of this influx, come from.
There is a lot to learn I think.
Cheers
Richard

[TobyAW]

Not sure if this would help?

http://www.tertial.us/gulls/tkg.htm

As Richard said there are a lot of these birds around that don't look 'pure' glaucoides. Not done enough digging to see what the Northern Isles or Faroes birds are like.

[sidwemn]

Hi,

This particular bird, although rather feint, does seem to show the classic Kumleinii patterned primaries.  Note that the pale tipped Inner Primaries (P1 to P5) contrast with the darker outers, a key feature on some of the articles I've read. P6 - P9 all show a dark outer web with the tips of P7-P9 hooking onto the inner web to show the classic J shape. The bird also shows the remnants of a tail band and darkish secondaries.

As far as bare parts are concerned, does anyone think the bill shows a fairly prominent gonys? On the other hand it has a pale unmarked eye.

From what I've been able to glean, the dark, brown washed Glaucoides have shown a general wash to all the primaries, so that they lack the contrast between inner and outer primaries.

No doubt this is a tricky bird and I agree Richard, there is still a lot to learn.

Cheers
Martyn