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When I first saw this bird at 10.20 this morning (19 December) it took me a few seconds to realise it was actually a Common Gull, as it was so much darker grey on the upperparts than usual. It was swimming amongst a loose straggle of large gulls a short distance offshore, where the waves were breaking and some birds were bathing, attracted to the fresh water from the small stream that runs into the sea at this point. After watching it for a short time through the telescope I suspected it was a Russian Common Gull L c heinei, but as photographs would be an essential part of the identification process, I quickly turned my attention to getting photographic documentation. If there was time, I would try to phonescope it, but since shots of the open wing would be a vital part of the documentation, I prioritised the SLR camera, even though this meant I was essentially following a tiny dot in the viewfinder, and not really "seeing" very much. After a little over a minute, something disturbed the whole flock of birds, and I followed the single dark Common Gull as it flew off. From the time of the first photograph to the last was less than two minutes, and even though I remained for a further 90 minutes or so, I did not see the bird again. Analysis of the photographs indicates that the bird is indeed a Russian Common Gull, a subspecies not previously recorded in Ireland, so far as I am aware, but one that is probably overlooked. As a matter of fact, on 28 January 2006, at Arklow, Wicklow, I saw and videoed a bird that in some ways is an even more convincing candidate for a Russian Common Gull, with a clearly lighter iris than regular Common Gull, rather bright yellowish bill and legs, and the "winter Caspian Gull-like" neat spotting on the hindneck that is now known to be characteristic of heinei. In 2006, very little was known about the field identification of Russian Common Gull, but a brilliant paper by Peter Adriaens and Chris Gibbins published in Dutch Birding in January 2016 (available free online here: https://www.dutchbirding.nl/journal/38/1 ) provided the clarification that was needed to identify the various members of the canus complex. Not all birds can be identified conclusively, and the Arklow bird did not have as conclusive a wing-pattern as the Duncannon bird I saw today, but I think it has to be heinei too.
I attach a few annotated photographs of the Duncannon bird, and when I get some time I will do the same for the 2006 bird at Arklow.
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