Another large gull

[Colin Key]

I saw this gull this morning at Lagos fishing port. My brief view was "contra jour" in very bright sunshine and I actually saw less detail than the photos show - it was really just a silhouette. It was bathing in a puddle with Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed gulls but appeared considerably larger than both. It was the huge, heavy bill which really made it stand out from the other gulls.

Greater Black-backed Gulls are very scarce vagrants this far south, but could this be a L. marinus (1st winter/2nd c.y.)?

Opinions welcomed.

Colin

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o100/Passarinhos/0C0J5365.jpg

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o100/Passarinhos/0C0J5363.jpg

[Red-eyed Video]

If I saw this bird in the U.K. I wouldn't hesitate to call it L. marinus. If I saw it in South Africa I'd be trying to differentiate between Cape & Kelp.

GBBG gets my vote without checking field guides etc. Nice pics, the sun's just come out here after a snow covering this morning.

[Pipixcan]

Hi, yep you`ve got a GBB Gull,

cheers,P

[Colin Key]

Thanks for the confirmation lads. I have seen L. marinus in Portugal before but always at a distance where it stands out like a sore thumb in a group of "lofing" LBBs and YLs. Not a rarity, but very scarce here.

I do have some rather bad memories of this species from my "Kentish" days, watching adult GBBs swallowing whole the almost fully-fledged young of Black-headed Gulls and Sandwich Terns at Dungeness RSPB.

Obrigado,

Colin