These 3rd- and 4th-cycle Herring
Gulls (Larus argentatus argenteus/argentatus) were
photographed at Peterhead (north of Aberdeen), northeast Scotland on Feb 25/26, 2009. One of the published ID features for smithsonianus of this age is fairly clean blackish patches or marks on the tertials and/or upperwing coverts; these birds have such markings (although most smithsonianus have the tertial marks even more clea
nly demarcated):
