A nice surprise as I passed the school playing field this morning: a yellow-legged gull amongst the playground gulls. My eye was caught by its dark back compared to the herring gulls in the mob. It was a chunky-looking bird, too, though some Scandinavian herring gulls can be big brutes and have darker backs than Western European birds. The grey on this bird was substantially darker, approaching common gull grey. The beak was big and chunky but not appreciably yellow in the dull light.
I think it was a third-Winter bird:
- The grey on most of the wings was nearly the same shade as the "saddle" on its back, just slightly duskier, as if smutted with soot.
- The secondaries were darker yet and most of the primaries and primary coverts were black,
- I think the outermost primaries had a white mirror but I couldn't be 100% sure.
- I could be sure of the black tail band which was very neatly defined against the white of the tail, herring gulls have tail bands that grade into a band of dark spots on the tail.
On the way back the large gulls were leaving, heading off towards Trafford Park before coming back to one of the local schools for the post-lunchbreak feast. I couldn't confirm the YLG amongst the flock.
On average I'll see one YLG here a year, nearly always in Autumn.
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