Preening Glaucous Gull

I hadn't seen any white-winged gulls this winter until today, when I got two glaucous gulls at the Bay of Birsay. These are birds that breed in the nearctic but wander in the winter and we can sometimes get good numbers here of glaucous, the smaller Iceland gulls and, occasionally, the much rarer ivory gull. This one has a green ring on the left leg and it  has been seen a few times over the last couple of weeks. The ring has been traced and shows that the bird was ringed as a chick on Bear Island, Svalbard last July. That's over 1200 miles away. The extra is of the same bird. I thought he other gull was a 2nd winter one but have been told that it was actually also a 2st winter (told by Martin Grey who some of you may have seen on Winterwatch last week).