(Short-billed) Mew Gull in Brooklyn - 22nd Jan

A (Short-billed or American) Mew Gull was reported from a site in Brooklyn late on Wednesday afternoon. Having a late start on Thursday I decided to twitch it, and I duly found the bird at about 9:30 on Thursday morning. It was sitting on the guard rail next to Toys R Us, just off the Belt Parkway at a spot known as Caesar's Bay on ebird. It disappeared quite quickly, but I relocated it at about 10:00am. This is apparently the first of this type on Long Island, most Mew Gulls here being transatlantic vagrant Common Gulls. Its normal breeding area is Alaska and northwestern Canada, and it usually winters on the west coast of the US.

1st winter Mew Gull, L. (c.) brachyrhynchus. Most easily picked out from the mass of Ring-billed Gulls by its overall very brown appearance...

...and much more slender bill.

Separated from similar ages of Common Gull, L. (c.) canus by heavy brown barring on the rump....

...and overall dark brown appearance on the underparts.

Almost exactly a year ago, on 6th January 2014, in Laoag, northern Philippines I saw this closely related Kamchatka Gull, L. (c.) kamtschatschensis.

It has a mostly white rump, but with some dark brown markings...

...and the underparts are also speckled dark brown. The bill is also more substantial, and more obviously two-tone. It seems to be intermediate between canus and brachyrhynchus. The only one left of this complex for me to find is L. (c.) heinei, so a trip to Russia might be in order!