UK Gulls (1 Viewer)

[Georgebirds]

I've just been reading about yellow-legged gulls, and wondering if I've been seeing them without realising, so I had a look back through a batch of photos and could possibly have some here? Seem to be three different shades of grey on show, with the palest in each pic being herring gull and the darkest I think are lesser black-backed, so does that make the in-between shade, yellow-legged?
Deeping Lakes, Lincolnshire

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello,

with a slight variation in mantle shade in large Gulls (and much more you know), I cant see a confident YLG among your birds.
Please note, that many YLG are closer to a Herring Gull than to an average LBBG in mantle shade.
Compare to this adult YLG (Schwetzinger Wiesen, SW-Germany, 09.07.2019)

https://flic.kr/p/2pPQfZ7

Knowing from your ID that the two sleeping birds in the first pictures are Herring Gulls, I think that mantle shade is slightly too blueish tinged.

The sleeping bird in the foreground in the last pictures is on the pale end of variation for a graellsii LBBG, but slightly too dark for many YLG, at least the ones from SW Germany (with the usual caveats, and please note that strong evening or morning light makes Gulls appear darker manteld. I found this often most striking in YLG and Common Gulls, while Herring Gulls seems much lese prone to this. Reason anyone?)
And the white mirror on the underside of p10 seems too small for many YLG (?), so I think its another LBBG.

 

[Southern Viking]

I just see LBBG and Herring here. Looks like the differences in tone on the LBBG's is just down to the angle of the birds to the light.

 

[lou salomon]

Without an open wing we can't say much other than it looks a bit paler than the nearby graellsii. Could well be hybrid LBBG x ? (HG or YLG) on the apparently large white tertial and scapular crescents (a criteria of hybrids as per P. Adriaens, You are being redirected...)

 

[Georgebirds]

Thanks very much, to all three of you. This info is great, really appreciate the time taken to explain the ID features and help me learn, rather than just saying what's in the photos - I feel like I now know enough to really tell what I'm looking at, and what to look for in future.

 

[Derbyfella]

Yes these are the kind of posts that are helpful.
Not that saying yes it is or no it isnt, isnt helpful but a thorough explanation helps us beginners.

 

[Southern Viking]

I certainly agree, I've been a birder for about 35 years and interested in gulls for at least 25 of them, and still haven't got near the knowledge that Lou and especially Smiths has though. I am struggling to see any of these birds with a particularly bigger tertial crescent though? It's an interesting feature and that link from Lou to Smiths article is great, but in all of these photos there's another LBBG that has a similarly wide tertial crescent?

Don't take this the wrong way, I'm genuinely interested in learning more and not being critical of anyone's opinion!

 

[lou salomon]

True, and it could just be a photographic effect. That's why I said it could be, not it is. Somehow mantle colour doesn't match the more blueish colour of YLG, imo, but that's also very subjective. More pics and especially flight pics would be needed to solve this. It is also true, that mantle colour varies slightly within colonies. Palest birds are from Iceland.