FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] RFI: Gull ID Questions

[Dendroica@xxxxxxx]

Since there have been reports of a California Gull and possibly a 
Yellow-legged Gull, if not something even rarer, in Northern VA,  I have been 
looking at gulls more carefully and have two questions after observing a 
probable Herring Gull with both a red gony mark and black ring on its bill, a 
yellow iris, and an almost pure white head and neck.  Unfortunately the gull 
was resting on a piling at the Belle Haven marina and did not show its legs 
color.  The questions:

Is it unusual for the black tip on the bill not to have disappeared by the 
time a Herring Gull has attained adult breeding plumage?

Do adult California Gulls always have dark irises?

I would welcome other words of enlightenment as well.  Thanks.

Ralph Wall
Great Falls, VA



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