Thursday 25 January

I spent the afternoon visiting my parents in Birmingham and took a detour on the way home to have a look at Swanshurst Park where the Iceland Gull has returned for its second winter. It was easy-peasy.

Iceland Gull

Rather less simple to identify was another gull on the pool.

My first thought was that it wasn't a Herring Gull, so I took a photograph or two of it. The features that presented themselves were a grey mantle, rather lead grey but not especially dark. This suggested a second-winter bird, while the dark eye could point towards Caspian Gull. On the other hand, the bill wasn't very long, which could mean it was a Yellow-legged Gull.

I decided to post a picture of it on Twitter, and got two brave soles responding with their suggestions. First up was Craig Reed who said it was a hybrid which had been present last year as a first-winter, and was now back. Next came Tim Marlow who stated it was a Yellow-legged Gull.

I have to confess I rather liked the hybrid theory, although I do wonder what the parentage could be. The chances of a Yellow-legged Gull hybridising with a Caspian Gull seem pretty slight, so if it was a hybrid then it would need to be a Herring Gull X maybe a Caspian Gull.  Perhaps the hybrid theory is over-complicating the issue and it is indeed a Yellow-legged Gull.

I used to like looking at gulls before it all got complicated by the splitting of Herring Gull into different species. Nowadays I don't get to see that many gulls and I have clearly been left behind.

Actually, having read up further, in particular an article by Alan Dean on this bird (if its the same one) at Swanshurst Park, it seems that Yellow-legged Gulls are hybridising with Caspian Gulls more than might have been expected in central Europe.