Thursday 8th Dec..

Driving back from some work in Argyll and Bute I noticed a flock of gulls around a fish farm on the edge of Loch Fyne next to a handy lay by. One bird really stood out amongst the Herrings and appears to show features of second winter Yellow-legged Gull. I'm being extra cautious given this is still a rare bird in Scotland, I'm a bit rusty with them and of course Herrings in non adult plumage can be incredibly variable. But there were certainly some interesting features namely-

• general whiteness of head and breast with contrasting dark eye mask 
• largely dark bill with small pale tip (Herring in second winter generally with contrasty bi-coloured bill)
• Bill shape-looked consistently heavier than Herrings present with sharply hooked tip and very prominent gonys angle.
• Head shape-longer sloping forehead, flat crown and square looking nape.
• The tibia looked longer when alongside other Herrings.
• There was extensive moult to the mantle and scapulars with grey adult type feathers.

Features that were not so good were perhaps the lack of moult in the wing coverts to grey adult feathers and the fact that the belly looks heavily mottled-Advanced YLG's in second winter can have very uniform clean white look to whole of the underparts and distinct grey median covert band. However some research on the net shows this species to be highly variable and less advanced birds could look like this (I think!).

More straight forward was a classic Adult Scandinavian Herring Gull with dark grey mantle, big white primary mirrors, long bill with washed out colour, heavy head streaking.