gull ID

[kestrel]

Larry and I saw this bird on Sumas Prairie this afternoon. Can anyone tell which species it is?

It's the bird in the very middle of each photo:
unknown gull by Joel Schmidt, on Flickr

unknown gull by Joel Schmidt, on Flickr

[Ben]

I'll put my bet on Herring -- with the light eye not visible in the photos.

[Gord]

Not a bad bet, I suspect it's a hybrid Glaucous-winged x Herring. There's some greyish tones in those wing tips plus that hefty look of a Glaucous-wing. A smudgyish neck and head shows some Glaucous-wing influence over more streaky that is more Herring to me. Tough ones these guys are. And it's not getting any better! They are continuing to interbreed and the hybrids are also.