Oh, The Horror...

 

A quick trip to Towne last week somehow included a detour past the Inner Harbour, where in a shock turn of events, there were actually some horrid gulls for me to look at and find nothing good amongst.

 

O yes, here we go... [Abandon sanity all who scroll past here]

 

 

Inner Harbour

Gulls*, Mute Swans, Pied Wagtails.. Wooh, seriously exotic. [Ok, if this was, say the other side of the Atlantic, then yes...].

 

Let us look at one;

Herring Gull, 1cy

Fairly evenly coloured; all black bill, checkered coverts and tertial fringes, quite fresh second generation scapulars. [I figure anyone not into gulls has already hit the red button, or if too slow, passed out in horror, so no explaination of those terms needed...]

Another gull;

Herring Gull?, 1cy

Far more variation overall; bicoloured bill almost Glaucous-like, far darker coverts and tertials, well-worn 2nd-gen scapulars...

 

But.

It's still a Herring Gull, isn't it? Even odd-looking from being mid-preen [like the 'better' Herring behind it], you can tell it's not got the chops to be anything else; there's no pale head or underside, no stalky legs, no long wings, no neat tail bar [or dark underparts and Pom-like tail coverts! ;) ] or any other feature that might make you consider another species. At most you might say it has an interesting ancestor or two, back somewhere.

I do love that bill, though. Especially how the black runs down the cutting edge, very dapper. [For a young gull, anyway!]

 

 

 

Yes, that is it. Just a horrid Herring Gull. When you don't live on a rarity magnet, 999 times out of a thousand**, this is all you get. So this is what you get.

Ain't I a stinker?

;D

Be Seeing You...

 

 

[[*Herring, Black-headed, Great Black-backed. Wow.]]

[[** I'm an optimist, a realist would add at least another 0.....]]