ML128684311
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Adult, Unknown sex - X
Media notes
This adult Laughing Gull in basic plumage photographed by Curtis A. Marantz on 1 December 2018 in Varner Harbor, Salton Sea State Recreation Area, Riverside County, California, may have been the same bird reported at North Shore on 24 November 2018 by Bob McKernan.
Observation details
While scanning through the massive flock of Bonaparte’s Gulls that were foraging on the water in the now isolated lagoon, I spotted a single, adult Laughing Gull among the smaller birds. We then observed this bird as it swam at the surface with the other birds and briefly when it flew a short distance. This bird was a little larger than the Bonaparte’s Gulls, yet it was smaller than the Ring-billed Gulls, and probably closer to the latter than the former in size. I noted a bill that seemed long and relatively slim, with what appeared to be a straight culmen, a blunt tip, and a slight droop at the gonys. The forehead was sloping and the crown was rounded on a head of unremarkable size. The neck was slimmer than those of the Ring-billed Gulls but also seemingly longer than those of the Bonaparte’s Gulls, and the body was plump and sitting high on the water with the long wings extending backward and continuing beyond the tail. This bird’s patterns were typical of an adult in basic plumage. The head was mostly white, including the unmarked forehead and crown, yet there was enough dark in the face to demarcate white crescents above and below the eye, and also a bit of blackish clouding on the auriculars. My recollection is that the neck and breast were white, but the back, scapulars, and wing coverts were slate gray and a shade or two darker than those of the other gulls seen in direct comparison, but I noted no dark markings on the coverts. The tertials were primarily the same color as the rest of the wing, but they also had white tips that created a “tertial crescent” that separated the gray that characterized most of the wing from the black primaries that extended beyond. I further noted that the exposed primary tips each had a relatively small, white spot at the tip to produce a row of spots in a wingtip that was about as long as the entire length of the exposed tertials. I have only a vague recollection about noting when this bird flew that the tail was white and that the wings were mostly gray out to the black of the outer primaries. The bill appeared to be black and the eyes were dark, but I cannot recall noting the color of the legs or feet on a bird that I saw almost exclusively as it swam at the surface obscuring the belly, legs, and feet.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 7D Mark II
- Lens
- EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
- ISO
- 320
- Focal length
- 400 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/10.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/1600 sec
- Dimensions
- 2122 pixels x 1413 pixels
- Original file size
- 4.01 MB