this time a Franklin's

This would be a reasonable photoquiz if I hadn't given away the answer in the title

Even with its head in its scaps the prominent eye arcs give it away (once you actually see it.  It took me an embarrassingly long time to get on the bird even with knowing there was a hooded bird in the flock)

This bird had the classic half-hood and slender bill of a young Franklin's Gull.

The moult of the primaries was somewhat less classic.

Franklin's is supposed to undergo two complete wing moults each year, unique among gulls.  This bird retains most of its primaries from last fall, though the inner three are pale gray with broad white edging, evidence that it at least started the spring wing moult.

Another (blurry) view of the primaries.  I didn't trust the auto-focus to choose the right gull with the birds constantly crossing in front and behind each other (or it could have bailed on the gulls altogether and chosen the ground) and was manually focusing here.  The secondaries also appear to be entirely dark based first-fall feathers.

It has completely moulted its tail.

First fall Franklin's have a broad black tailband; this bird's tail is fully white.

an actual Laughing Gull this time

yeah, it's laughing at me.

Yesterday I checked Tiscornia after work and noticed a Laughing type gull on Silver Beach.  I drove over (after waiting for a train to pass.  Nothing like a stopped train on the tracks between a birder and a good bird).  I didn't have my camera with me so these are phone-scoped.

 

The bird has a full hood, very little white tips to the primary, a nice long bill (and long primary extension) and limited eye arcs.  It would have been nice to get flight shots for comparison with last week's bird, but oh well.

Here's last week's bird again.

The hood doesn't go down the nape as far but is fully black in the face.  Most subadult Laughing and Franklin's Gulls will have some white in the face.  This has a fully black face so I reflexively aged it as an adult, noted extensive black in the wingtips and called it a Laughing. [5/14 addendum - having discussed this bird with 3 other people I trust that's as far as you have to go.  It's and adult and therefore this amount of black means Laughing Gull]

In retrospect the P6 with an extensive white tip (which I had noted and decided was just an aberrant feature given that the rest of the primaries were laughing type without the white patterning) is a fresher feather than the rest of the primaries (and those primaries have less black than a legit Laughing gull would have.) [5/14 addendum, see above.  Also the black on the underside of the wing is more extensive than a Franklin's would have]

Here's a first summer Franklin's Gull from mid-May a few years ago

This one has vastly less black in the face and a much more adult wing pattern with white between the gray of the wing and black of the wingtips.  The one from last week has an adult head and much more juvenile wing pattern.

Here's a line of Laughing Gulls from 6 weeks ago in Florida.

I guess I should have worked harder to get FL flight shots.

This is a Laughing Gull for Tiscornia from a few years ago, it has a ton of black in the wings but based on the FL shot is probably also a sub-adult and has more black in the wings than an adult laughing gull would have.

time to go find some warblers.