Greater black-backed gull?

Can anybody confirm if that\'s correct?

Lesser Black-back, I'd say - wings look more slaty than jet black, they're in quite a big gang, and a Greater would properly dwarf those Black-headeds.

I would say this is just a ordinary Larus argentatus....

I think apart from the Black-headeds in the foreground, those are all Herring gulls?

Gull splitting has got pretty serious these days. I think that these are Herring Gulls, but at any rate definitely not Great Black-backs. That is a huge bird, bigger than all UK birds of prey other than the two eagles, and with a very dark mantle, as Maguari says.

I've had a look in a couple of my field guides- but now not sure whether these are Herring or Lesser B.B. -mantle/back colour of these birds seems intermediate between what is shown in the books. Typical!

I had the same trouble Pertinax, however I'm going for lesser black-backed gull, the grey colouration seems too dark for herring gull. The driver who took us around Knowsley thought they were lesser black-backed gull as well.

I find the best distinguishing feature is often leg colour (LBB=yellowish) but it doesn't help here. I still agree with Maguari that they are LBB, the appearance of the grey does vary with the light but these are too dark for herring gulls. This is a very interesting example of a ring species (or superspecies) which is a cline with the mantle colour getting essentially paler going east around the globe from Scandinavia: the herring gull is the other end of the cline that now overlaps with our lesser black backs and therefore appears to be a different species.

Alan

Fascinating! Where would we be without Zoochat! I think the general concensus is that they are LBB's, the colour is too dark for Herring Gull, as several folk have now pointed out.

When they were flying the legs were yellowish,hence me saying they were lbb!