Today I spent a few hours searching for interesting gulls near the landfill at Tullytown. Lesser Black-backed Gulls were pretty easy to come by and I also saw a first-winter Iceland and a first-winter Glaucous Gull.
I then came across an interesting gull. It piqued my interest due to the dark area around the eyes, coloration of the bill and what I thought was a longer primary extension.
In the end, the pink legs and light colored iris point to this just being a well marked American Herring Gull. It’s always neat to see the variation that Herring Gulls are capable of. This bird is likely either a 3rd cycle gull or a 4th cycle gull, due to several darker tertials and the darker bill color.
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