I did not get to see any of these birds. All photos were taken by the amazing Patrick Comins at the amazing Manchester landfill near Hartford Connecticut, which is no longer open. Alas, a loss for all lariphiles!
Patrick explains:
The possibility does remain that the bird was just a pale Lesser,
however, it was on the large side, with a rather heavy bill. The head
streaking pattern was intermediate between Herring and Lesser. That is
supporting evidence of it being a hybrid, but at that time of year I am
not sure that is concrete evidence. Given that the bird was intermediate
between Herring and Lesser Black-backed in so many ways, the most likely
ID I could come up with was a hybrid. Of course something strange like
one of the Asian gulls can not be ruled out, as I don't have any
experience with them.
I quickly grabbed my video camera and camera and began shooting away.
The bird flew off and was never seen again.
As always, click on the thumbnail to load the full image.
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I [Patrick] was able to take many photos of this bird. It was clearly a different
individual than the one seen in March, as it was a subadult bird, as can
be seen on the open wing shot(4th year? or advanced 3rd year?). Like the
March bird it was the 'mantle' color that first drew my attention to this
bird. The leg color was for the most part pink, however there was a
touch of yellow peeking through.
This bird was clearly intermediate between Herring and Lesser
Black-backed in many ways. It was slightly smaller than a typical
Herring Gull, and note the very small-headed appearance compared with the
relatively large bill. On the open wing, there is more black in the
outer primaries than is generally seen on a Herring Gull, and note the
small mirror on P10. One feature noted by one of the observers (an
author of a recent field guide) was that the wings were too broad for the
bird to be a pale Lesser Black-backed, again intermediate between the two
species. The head streaking pattern also was intermediate, with more
contrasting dark streaks, with heavier streaking on the nape and more
concentrated streaking around the eye than is typical of smithsonianus.
Depending on lighting conditions, you might have thought that the bird
was either just a Lesser or just a Herring. In image 1299hyb1, the bird
was photographed in good light. Note the beautiful blue slate gray color
to the 'mantle'. This was pretty true to life; the bird was beautiful.
As always, click on the thumbnail to load the full image.
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