notbirding: Kumlien's Gull

Thursday, 1 February 2018

Kumlien's Gull

I haven't been to Cotham Landfill since mid January, just before going to southern Spain (which I must get round to blogging about...). I didn't manage a visit last week, and had planned to go yesterday, but got put off by heavy rain when I arrived. Today was much better weather-wise, and I started grilling the gulls at about 7.45am. There weren't actually masses present, but half of them were very close, and it didn't take long for the lovely white 2cy Iceland Gull that has been frequenting the roost at Hoveringham to appear - very nice.

2cy Iceland Gull

And it wasn't much longer before I came across what I was really hoping for - what looked a lot like a 2cy Kumlien's Gull. One has roosted the previous two nights at Hoveringham, and 11 days previous. I got some pictures, including of the spread wing, and consensus on Twitter was that it looks good for one; John Hopper was happy it was the same as the Hoveringham bird.

2cy Kumlien's Gull

Doing some reading, mainly on Birding Frontiers, it is certainly at the less well-marked end of the spectrum in the spread wing, but fits the requirement of having an outer primary pattern with a brown wash centred on the primary shafts, spreading onto both webs and extending almost to the feather tips, plain and not mealy/spotted, with small subapical marks. It also shows one of the supporting tendencies, a dark bill, but lacks notable contrast between darker outer and paler inner primaries. I didn't see the tail properly to judge whether it had a distinct plain tail band.

I finished a quality hour off with brief views of a nice 2cy Caspian Gull; most of the gulls then moved off following some disturbance, so I left and was into work by 9.30. Ideal!