17th March 2014 - Topsham
I'm beginning to wonder if there are any proper
michahellis out there. Here's another two birds from Topsham Rec a few days ago. Darker mantle than nearby
argenteus - though still considerably paler than
graellsii, dark red orbital and gape and at at least one of the two had nice yellow legs. The only problem is the primary pattern - on the one bird I got spread wing shots of at least - large white mirror on P9, restricted black on P7 and P6 but with long black tongue on outer web and much white between the black and grey, also P5 has only two tiny black marks not a complete black band.
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| Hybrid or Yellow-legged Gulls - Topsham 17/3/2014 |
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| Hybrid or Yellow-legged Gulls - Topsham 17/3/2014 |
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| Hybrid or Yellow-legged Gulls - Topsham 17/3/2014 |
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| Hybrid or Yellow-legged Gulls - Topsham 17/3/2014 |
I don't know what these are, they may be genuine
michahellis, they may be
argenteus x
graellsii hybrids and there may be real
michahellis genes in there as well. If they are
michahellis, then where are they coming from? And why do I see so many 'yellow-legs' that just don't quite match the classic type? Anyone else seeing these?
Meanwhile on a less controversial note, here's a Mediterranean Gull from the next day: a 2nd summer/3rd calendar year with a lot of black in the primaries - at the extreme end of the range?
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| Mediterranean Gull 3cy - 18/3/2014 Topsham |
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| Mediterranean Gull 3cy - 18/3/2014 Topsham |
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