This gull was photographed on December 28, 2006 in the Coastal Plain near Houston and Galveston, This gull is a Herring Gull type:
The chest pattern first drew my attention, as this thick, blurry streaking is rare at best on the first-cycle American Herring Gulls (AMHE) I see in Texas. A quick glance at the visible part of the tail suggested an Old World tail pattern, which was confirmed when the bird took flight. Also note the tertials have complete jagged white fringes creating a dark "holly-leaf" center, and the fairly extensive white bars in the greater coverts. The extensive white barring in the greater coverts is normally found on a handful of birds each winter here, but today I saw an unusually high number of such birds - at least twenty individuals (out of less than 400 large gulls), some of which also had small amounts of white barring in the base of the tail, and/or complete white fringes to the tertials (but these fringes would be even-width, and usually there were pale subterminal markings to each tertial). I think that the bird below would not get a second look in a European gull flock - but I'd appreciate feedback on this:
