Friday gulls

I always come away from a session looking at gulls at Cotham feeling more confused that when I started - it never ceases to amaze me just how variable the same species can be. Anyway, starting with the easy gulls first, I had good views of what were apparently two different juvenile Glaucous Gulls - both different from the juv Glauc that I've been seeing this year so far; this brings the total number of different Glaucs I've seen at the site this winter to five (4 juvs, one adult), four of which have been present in 2013. One of today's Glaucs was large (GBBG size) and fairly dark, the other appeared a bit paler and smaller - but this may have been due to light and distance. 

Juv Glauc 1

Juv Glauc 1

Juv Glauc 2?

Juv Glauc 2?

More tricky was what appeared to be a hybrid gull - check out the primaries in the pics below (much paler than usual -  greyish brown, with pale tips). This bird was the size of an average Herring Gull; the wings looked quite long and the bill rather small with a paler, slightly pinkish base. Unfortunately I didn't see its wings or tail in flight.

Presumed hybrid gull

I also had brief views of a 1st W Caspian Gull, which looked a lot like the bird I photo'd last time, plus at least one 1st W Yellow-legged Gull (a couple of other candidates remained unconfirmed). Also three different Lesser Black-backed Gulls were also present, along with a couple of heavily hooded sub-adult Herring Gulls - the two strongest marked birds shown below. 

Strongly hooded Herring Gulls

No sign of the adult Iceland Gull which John Hopper has had in the roost at Hoveringham recently (including on wednesday night), nor of the adult Glauc which John had in the roost last night.