This first-cycle gull was photographed in Galveston County, Texas, on January 26, 2006; it has most (all?) the features of Atlantic Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis atlantis), but there seem to have been so many YLGU-like birds from Texas lately that we must consider whether there is a hybrid form (one that is not that rare, given the numbers involved, and is more likely than Atlantic YLGU, in Texas) that could produce this combination of features. One factor to keep in mind is that the autumn/early winter of 2005 was a record-breaking one for fast-moving hurricanes - which are "born" off of the west coast of Africa just south of the normal rrange of some populations of Atlantic YLGU - that entered the Caribbean and then pushed north into the Gulf of Mexico...:
in flight from above, note the pale mantle/back/scaps contrasting with the darker wings - this is supposed to be a clincher for YLGU verses LBBG:
