Gull only with Secondary 1 and 2. YLG or LBBG?

[Armin]

hey,
The following Gull I photographed on the 1.8.2012 at Meldorfer Hafen (German Wadden Sea).
The bird has only 2? visible Secondaries on each wing.

My first thought were Yellow-legged Gull (but I haven´t much experience with Gulls and no experiences with summer Gulls).

I showed the bird to Detlef Gruber who favoured Yellow-legged Gull and Ronald Klein who can´t exclude Lesser Black-backed Gull sure.

So I hope you can help me

Greets Armin

[lou bertalan]

hi armin,

i'm quite confident that this is a 2cy michahellis. you can see 3 secondaries on each wing plus another one(or two?) like a "dent" in the right wing. if you count from outwards don't forget to count the missing p9.
its bill is enormous and fits well a male YLG. smudge around eye on an otherwise white bulky head, some contrasting marked lower scaps on an otherwise greyish ground and some pale grey scaps shouldn't leave doubts.

lou

[adriaens]

Also, new inner primaries are too pale for LBBG.

[Armin]

Thanks for your comments.

Greets Armin