ML127038511

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Found by Jerry Dewage, sitting on on high beach opposite east path dune crossing. Appeared around Laughing Gull size, though not seen side by side to compare. Overall uniform dark brownish-gray, with no warm tones at all (colder than juv Laughing Gull). Undertail coverts boldly barred black-and-white; this pattern merged into much lower contrast bars (dark brown-gray on lighter brown-gray) on flanks. Scapulars and wing coverts with thin pale grayish edges, visible through scope but not obvious through binoculars; wing covert edges thinner than on scapulars, so wings appeared slightly darker; secondaries slightly darker than coverts, not quite as dark as primaries. Primaries blackish with no pale edges. Relatively small, rounded head and short bill gave dove-like look to head. Head and breast uniform brown-gray with only the faintest streaking (looked perfectly uniform through binoculars); lores contrastingly dark; nape only very faintly paler. Bill about half black (tip) and half gray (base). Legs pale gray with black toes. Central tail feathers round-tipped and projecting prominently past rest of tail; primaries projected a relatively short ways past tail tip. Bird appeared like it may have been sick, and seemed to stand weakly, preferring to sit down. However, it eventually flew off strongly and began chasing Black Skimmers. In flight, upperwing showed only two prominent white primary shafts. Underwing pattern not seen well. What was certainly this same bird was seen flying past the hawk watch yesterday by Tom Reed. Poor digiscope photos. More photos from Kurt Schwarz:

Technical information

Dimensions

640 pixels x 480 pixels

Original file size

66 KB