This bird was photographed at Corpus Christ Landfill on March
16, 1999 by Martin Reid. Could it be an argentatus Herring Gull? The mantle is slightly
but distinctively darker than 3 or 4 nearby adult smithsonianus;
it has a flat, squarish head with a long parallel-sided bill;
the legs are rather long; it looked slightly larger and bulkier
(yet long-bodied) than all nearby smithsonianus; sadly I never
saw it in flight; are the primaries too dark for argentatus, even
for a 3rd-basic bird? I recently spent a day looking at a few
argentatus scattered among many argenteus at Milton Landfill near
Cambridge, England, and this bird very much recalls the "jizz"
of those birds. Other possibilities are some kind of hybrid (what?),
Vega Gull (Larus (argentatus) vegae) or a dark, bulky,
square-headed, long-billed smithsonianus - any
comments? I would especially like to hear from European/Scandinavian
birders on this bird and also with any data about the southerly
wintering limits for argentatus - thank you:
