© A. R. Dean

Strictly, Glaucous Gulls in their first calendar year are 'juveniles' rather than 'first-winters', as they moult few if any feathers before the complete moult into second-winter plumage, which commences during the spring of the second calendar-year. The plumage becomes paler and plainer during the course of first winter, primarily as a result of bleaching and wear. The individual here, photographed in November at Dosthill Lake, is still very evidently 'juvenile', with relatively dull and gingery head, breast and underparts. The upperparts, scapulars, wing-coverts and especially the flight-feathers are conspicuously paler.