ML129092601

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

I saw this small, brownish gull, the size of a Sandwich Tern, perched with some terns on a crossbeam supported between two stakes. It had a short. black bill, rather thin-looking; thin like a tern's but shorter. This bill gave it a pigeon-like look. Its head was whitish with some gray areas. It was all white below and its feet looked sort of bluish-pink. It took off from the crossbeam, and I saw that its tail showed a black band on the tip and a white rump. it landed in the water and proceeded to swim around the stakes where the terns were resting. It pedaled slowly westward. The back of the head was grayish with some brown mottling, meaning it was mottled in the area behind the eyes and on the nape, but it had no black marks or ear spot there. The brown mottling extended down the sides of the neck, but the throat and the center of the neck were white. Floating on the water at rest, the wing patterns showed some whitish areas on the feathers in the secondaries, the primaries were dark brown, there were white spots on the tips of the wings but the wing plumage was overall mottled light brown. After the bird had pedaled westward, almost past the last row of stakes, it slowly pedaled back, going around and between the stakes again. It flew out of the water and tried to find an unoccupied stake to perch on, but the terns would not yield their resting places. This time, I was able to observe the wing pattern, which I had never seen before, with a white triangular area on each wing. I then recognized it as a Sabine's Gull. It is not reported as a vagrant or accidental in H. Rafaelle's Field Guide, but James Bond, in his Birds of the West Indies, reports it as a vagrant which was recorded in Gibara Bay, Cuba, in 1954. (A poorly drawn sketch made by myself and showing the striking wing pattern of this gulls is included with these notes.)

Technical information

Model

HP oj_g510g-m

Dimensions

1410 pixels x 629 pixels

Original file size

393.02 KB