Had this what I'm pretty happy is a Caspian Gull on the Clwyd just south of railway bridge yesterday. Apologies for delay and quality of pics.
Although its difficult to tell, it appeared to have yellowish legs
Appeared to have quite a Caspo like posture and a stonking bill. Appears to have a beady black eye.
Be nice to hear other opinions....? If anyone in the area, please check. Marine lake also attracting a good number of gulls too
Hi Alex. Certainly looks very interesting. Small, beady eye which is slightly forward on head. Leg length, bill shape and posture certainly look good. Did you see the wing tips at all. I guess you have to ave this to clinch the ID for certain.
ReplyDeleteIt's not really shouting Caspo to me but I can see the features that caught your eye but seen herring sit like this and bill looks hg like. However ive still not seen Caspo so could be wrong!
ReplyDeletePrior to posting on here I sent these images away to a couple of good gullers, obviously better images needed to be 100% sure but I had feedback saying it looked good for Caspo. It was terrible light as you can tell but be worth checking out. Hi Kev, I agree after doing a bit of research, I didn't get the wing tips so can't be sure.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rob S. I saw a herring gull at llanddulas standing with the same posture this morning. Legs aren't quite long enough, bill doesn't look long enough, head shape not quite right for me but it's just my opinion based on these photos. But I've not seen one for about a year.
ReplyDeleteHi Alex, I can see why you picked this out but I agree with the 2 Robs in that it appears to be an ad HGI've had a few beady-eyed ones like this in the past thathave made me look more closely. I've only seen a few Casps but their lanky posture and long, snouty bill have always stood out from the crowd. If you can manage any open wing shots of the primaries, that's always handy to clinch a tricky ID.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the thoughts. Such a hard and tricky id as you said Chris. Done a fair bit of research, looks HG probably best bet as you've all said. All good learning and experience.
ReplyDeleteNoticed a couple of potentially misleading things with the bill in the pics too. The tip of the bill looks extra long in the first two pics by what looks like the shine from the belly of the bird behind it. The third pic also seems so show a longer bill by what could be a pebble shining on the beach just by the tip of the bill. I could be wrong with this though. It might just be the shine from the end of the bill, not seen on the surrounding birds.
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