Below is the link to several photos of the bird found by Bill Bunn in Portland that I saw at Mill Creek in South Portland today. On some of the flight photos you can see dark outer webs on primaries 6-10, although they may be less bold on P10 and P6. 1st cycle Kumlien's can show these webs I believe with strongest contrast on P7-P9, but I don't know that that would mean non existent contrast on P6 and P10. You can see on this 1st cycle bird at rest that the tertials are mostly dark which is a good mark for a Thayer's. Most of the secondaries (seen in flight) are dark, but not all. This bird also has a good tail band on it, but Kumlien's can also show that. I think this bird looks overall throughout the body and head too pale for what one would expect for a 1st cycle Thayer, but maybe it is bleached out at this point?
I am not going to spend more time right now getting in to confusing details with gull ID that I don't fully understand, but in my opinion, this bird shows characteristics of both Kumlien's and Thayer's, but maybe those two species always share things in common. Maybe we can call it Larus Bunnus?
Anyone's thoughts on the ID of this gull are welcome!
Bird haahd,
Noah Gibb-Portland
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