Iceland Gull Larus glaucoides
IOC currently recognises three subspecies – nominate glaucoides (‘Iceland Gull’) breeding in Greenland, a regular winter visitor; kumlieni (‘Kumlien’s Gull’), breeding mainly on Baffin Island, vagrant; and thayeri (‘Thayer’s Gull) breeding in the Canadian high arctic, also a vagrant; the latter two subspecies are considered separately. Nominate glaucoides is a regular winter visitor to Lincolnshire, generally in small numbers but with occasional larger influxes. There are earlier claims but one at Gibraltar Point NNR in October 1962 has the best credentials as a county first. This was a rare winter visitor 1962-1997 with only nine records but thereafter became more regular. During 2000-2010 there were 5-6 records per year with peaks of nine in 2005 and 11 in 2006. An unprecedented influx into north and north-western Britain occurred in 2012 with perhaps as many as 20 birds in Lincolnshire, mostly 2CY birds. Double figure records were seen in four other years and numbers averaged 8-9 overall, though movement between sites makes accurate estimates almost impossible.
No Iceland Gulls have been ringed in Lincolnshire and just a few in the UK as a whole; these have yielded two sightings of colour-ringed birds in Denmark. The foreign-ringed birds recovered or seen elsewhere in the UK have come from Greenland and Norway.
(Account as per new Birds of Lincolnshire (2021), included September 2022)