I was told about a different gull at Lake Monger in Perth today, so I went
to look for it. It was easy to find in the south west corner near the island.
It has very yellow bill, feet and legs. These were very easy to see by eye
even from some distance. The upper bill has a faint black tip. Its shape,
size, etc were all the same as the nearby Silver Gulls, and I believe that
this is what it is.
Other details of the bird were a white head with a dark (black?) eye with no
noticable eye ring. The back was silver, but some flight feathers were
still brown. The flight feathers appeared longer than the nearby adults,
but almost identical to the other immature gulls. At rest, the flight
feathers crossed. They were black with three very small white dots visible
at rest. In flight it had a thin faint dark grey band on the tail tip (or
very close to the tip).
However, this is the first Silver Gull that I have seen with yellow bill and
legs, so I looked up HANZAB for more details.
You need to spend some time looking for information in HANZAB, but what I
found fairly quickly suggests that it is a "first immature". But surely
these should be common?
Has anyone else seen a Silver Gull with yellow bill, feet and legs?
PS : The Little Ringed Plover at Bibra Lake was not seen today despite
people looking in the morning and the afternoon.
____________________________________________________________
Frank O'Connor Argyle Diamonds
8C Hardy Road PMB 11
Nedlands WA 6009 West Perth WA 6872
Phone +61 8 9386 5694 +61 8 9167 1445
ICQ 14655047 Fax +61 8 9167 1438
Email
Birding WA http://www.iinet.net.au/~foconnor/
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