Pulling up on the pier mid-day found this bird, along with several Great
Black-backed and Herring Gulls
harassing the Common Eider feeding between the boats. The gulls large size and
mantle color, mid-way
between Herring & Great-Black-backed really made it stand out among the crowd.
A note to Rick Heil confirmed my suspicions that this could be a hybrid.
"...looks good for a Herring X Great Black-backed hybrid. Size and
structure look roughly intermediate,
almost full white tip to P10 and small mirror on P9 good for such a combo..."
Not clear in the photographs is the "light pink" leg color. The gull is
not in
active wing molt but has a
damaged outer primary, P10, on it's left wing (seen well in the 1st two photos
below).
