Yellow-Legged Gull ~ Juv ~ Dungeness, Kent - 11.08.13

A day on Dungeness beach, near the fishing boats checking and photographing the gulls is always good, but it got much more interesting when a bird appeared and stood out from the crowd ...

Compared to the other gulls nearby it was a superb comparison to check its features against ...

Pale head & dark eye mask ..

Solid dark Tertials ..

Broad dark tail band ..

White upper tail & rump ..

Thick black bill ..

Dark outer Greater Coverts ..

Pale belly & undertail Coverts ..

Dark trailing edge to wing ..

Long wing projection ..

This bird shows no 2nd. generation scapulars yet ..

Such a stunning bird it got papped ...

Yellow-legged Gull ~ Juvenile

And a different Juvenile that kept it's distance ..

A Caspian Gull 

Fantastic afternoon's Gulling !!

  

Yellow-Legged Gull - 1st. W ~ Jolly Farmers, Crayford, Kent - 06.02.13

This 1 st. winter bird is still staying around the area, seen earlier on the Flood along Bob Dunn Way then this afternoon on waste ground near the Jolly Farmers Pub

Yellow-Legged Gull ~ 1st. W

Yellow-Legged Gull ~ Jolly Farmers, Crayford, Kent - 20.11.12

It's that time again Gullfreaks when large Larus species start massing up near landfill sites and the clean white headed birds cause confusion !!

So en route to the timber yard, I did a slight detour to check the gulls at some waste ground, formerly Dusseks along side The Jolly Farmers Pub.

A great area, with Viridor, Clubbs, Rainham tip and the Council tip all close by.

The gulls rest up here and scanning through had 2 ad. + 1 1st.W Yellow-legged and a ad.W Med Gull.

Then I found a clean white headed bird, the YLG's had streaking compared to this bird. The bill's shape, colour, size and parallel sided bill differing from the YLG's.

The wing markings, far to much black and no pale tongues !!!

It seems to fit YLG !!

Eyes are really pale  ..

Yellow-Legged Gull ~ ad.W

To much black on the underwing for a Caspian  !!