Some Assynt gulls
Most winters in Assynt we get records of what are referred to as white-winged gulls. This term is used simply because the species involved don’t have the more typical black and white tips to their wings. Common Gull, Larus canus, and Herring Gull, Larus argentatus, are the two most obvious examples of our more frequently seen gulls that posses the black and white wing tips.
The two species of white-winged gulls we tend to see are the Iceland Gull, Larus glaucoides, and the Glaucous Gull, Larus hyperboreus. Don’t ask why they couldn’t have matched the species name to the common name; things are never that simple!
It actually gets worse; the Iceland gull doesn’t occur in Iceland but is found in Greenland and Arctic Canada. Want to guess where the Glaucous gull occurs? Answer is at the end.
Anyway, the Field Club had been receiving occasional reports of an immature Glaucous gull around the Stoer-Clachtoll area since late January 2022. The weather since the first report hadn’t exactly been conducive to photography! However, I managed to catch up with the bird again on 11th February as it was having a preen on the sand at Bay of Stoer. It obliged by not flying away for a couple of minutes and so I was able to get a few photos (1.).
It turned out to be a 2nd-winter bird, i.e. it hatched in the summer of 2020, and will moult to its first full adult plumage in the early spring of 2024. The darker patches all over its current plumage and the very small, pale tip to the bill are the ageing clues.
Other gulls
A few metres closer to the Broch were two other immature gulls so it would have been rude not to take their photos as well. These were a 1st-winter Black-headed Gull, Chroicocephalus ridibundus, and a 2nd-winter Common Gull. The Common Gull is closer to the camera, and the Black-headed has the small dark patch on the side of its head (2.).
You are much more likely to see the other two species than the Glaucous.
As well as a photo of this Glaucous gull I’ve added an older photo of two 1st-winter Iceland gulls that were in Loch Inver during January 2020 (3.). They look much the same as the Glaucous, but the main differences are the smaller more delicate bill, the overall less aggressive look of the Iceland and the longer projection of the wings beyond the tail of the Iceland.
There are also photos of adult Herring(4.) and Common gulls(5.) to show the black tip to their wings.
So, where does the Glaucous Gull come from? Where else but Iceland!!
David Haines
(words and photos)