Mystery Gull

[Tim Avery <tanager at timaverybirding dot com>]

The Mystery Gull is a Ring-billed Gull.  Although it displays charcteristics of
a Mew, the bill is far too large.  Here is a pictures of a Ring-billed Gull
from Lake Michigan this winter that I took.  MY first impression was of Mew
Gull, even with the tiny bill, but plumage wise it just didn't quite fit.

http://www.timaverybirding.com/pictures/mew_gull_01.jpg

Your picture:

http://www.pbase.com/image/41853826/original

Has a good side by side view with an adult Ring-billed.  The smallest
Ring-billed Gull should still be noticably larger, these two birds, are "about"
the same size.

I would say this is a late 1st Winter bird, because of the plumage, the
primaries aren't developing spots yet, and the coverts still have a little bit
of checking, and the edges of the scapulars appear to have a bit of checking as
well.

One more photo on the Utah buirds site is a good comparison shot.  Note how tiny
the bill is.  Where the RB, can have a smaller, its not likely to see a mutant
Mew with a ginormous bill: (scroll to the last picture on the bottom)

http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/index.html
Salt Lake City, UT or Beloit, WI
http://www.timaverybirding.com

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