Aberavon Beach (7/10/13)

A few gathering gulls at the rivermouth, yesterday evening, saw this Herring Gull type stick out from the crowd. A few shades darker than our Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus argenteus), but otherwise quite similar. Shape, leg colour and bill size seems to rule out Yellow-legged Gull and suggest possibly "northern" Herring Gull (Larus argentatus argentatus), which show a darker shade of grey on the upper parts and also less black in the wingtips. This bird is still growing it's outer primaries making the task of studying the wingtip pattern hard, add to this video-grab record shots in poor light and it becomes harder still.

The inner-web of P9 shows a lot of white along its length which is consistent of northern Herring Gulls that show less black in the wing. This feature would also be expected to be seen on a fully grown P10. However, the pattern, especially the tip of P9, is a little unexpected and therefore the possibility of a hybrid gull of some sort can't be ruled out, from these shots. The size of this bird, while looking fairly stocky at times, was not noticeably bigger than other Herring Gulls present nearby, whereas northern Herring  Gulls can often appear bigger by comparison.

Lots of activity around the bay; less usual stuff being a pair of Wigeon flying upriver and 27 Golden Plovers showing some intent on coming in to land along the shore before making a couple of circuits of the bay and heading off towards Mumbles. Also more Auk sp offshore today with 4 on the sea at distance.