THE GLAUCOUS GULL Larus glaucus, O. Fabricius
Reading edition
This large white-winged Gull is an annual visitor to the north of Scotland, but southwards it becomes scarcer, and it is only in very severe weather that it visits the south of England. Its breeding range is circumpolar, its nearest breeding-place to our shores being in Iceland.
GREATER BLACK-BACKED GULL Larus marinus Summer (right). Young, first autumn (left)
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The mantle and wings are pearl-grey, with white tips to the secondaries and outermost webs of the quills. Orbital ring vermilion. Legs pink. Immature birds are whitish uniformly and thickly mottled with ash grey. Length 29 in.; wing 18 in.