Identify this What is this young bird?

What is this young bird?

RichardE 21/08/2023 23:18

I spotted this young bird swimming close to the beach at Herne Bay in Kent. It looked a little lost and swam determinedly along the shore, just a few metres out.

My 5 year old thought it was a penguin, naturally. Google lens came up with some obviously dumb ideas but also suggested a young razorbill or guillemot which, from the online pictures, did look like possible contenders. Not birds I would expect to see in Kent though.

I'd be very grateful of some help identifying it.

Cheers

Richard

0 Clare 22/08/2023 05:18

It looks like a razorbill. Guillemots don't have that white stripe on their wings. Lovely sighting.

Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
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0 RichardE 22/08/2023 08:06

Thanks very much.

It was hard to see if it had thie distinctive bill of the razorbill The photos don't help either.. But perhaps the bill isn't so developed on juveniles?

With regard to Google lens, it simply searched for photos matching mine, so it could easily have confused breeding plumage, etc. However, this was a fairly small bird and it's behaviour suggested to me that it was young and left behind. But of course I'm just surmising here.
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0 RichardE 22/08/2023 08:23

Thanks again, that's really interesting. I'm probably one of those people who imagine auks to be larger than they really are!
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