Putative Heuglin's Gull at Chioggia, Venice, NE Italy

Yesterday morning a "graellsii-type" gull was observed by me and Mike Resch from MA, Usa. However both of us agreed about the gull being not fitting the field characters of the Lesser-black backed Gulls that we observed either in Italy (me) or East Coast of Usa (Mike).
Indeed the bird had square head, heavy bill, long legs and wings and was about the same size of the nearest Yellow-legged Gulls (while the observed LBBGs are averaging 10% smaller than the latter species).
Unfortunately we were unable to take a picture of the gull when it was close, so we had to wait the arrival of our friends Selina and Matteo, with cameras and lens. In the meanwhile, the gull flew to land atop the roof of a large building, and Selina took a first picture. Suddenly a passing over raptor scared the flock of the gulls resting on the roof. Nevertheless, Matteo was able to take a shot of the disarranged flock. What a surprise, in the shot is visible another large dark "mystery" WH Gull. Finally we present another photo taken during the following afternoon by Matteo of a typical second winter LBBG from Gorino, Ferrara, the Po river Delta.



Putative Heuglin's Gull, Chioggia, 20 march 2010




Putative Heuglin's Gull, Chioggia, 20 march 2010


Mystery gull, Chioggia, 20 march 2010


Lesser Black-backed Gull, second winter, Gorino, 20 march 2010