ML207511861

Age and sex

Immature Unknown sex - 1

Observation details

*Very rare. First eBird record for Essex County. There is an apparent record of an immature bird from Crown Point during early August 1993 (Carleton/Peterson 1999). There are no prior winter season records in the Lake Champlain basin or Adirondacks. I picked out this bird while scanning the Ring-billed Gulls that were staged at the frozen mouth of Hoisington Brook. Although out of context I quickly recongized this as a 1CY Laughing Gull, a species that I am quite familiar with given my history of birding in New York’s coastal region. Given the odd date I made sure to take extra care in eliminating the other similar Leucophaeus, Frankin’s Gull. First, the bird showed long dark legs, pale eye arcs and was notably smaller than the nearby Ring-billed Gulls providing me with the immediate recognition of a Leucophaeus gull. The bird exhibited a dusky dark head and dirty grayish-brown breast and sides. 1 CY Franklin’s Gull would exhibit clean white underparts and a more extensive white on face. The bird’s dark bill was long and clearly consistent with Laughing Gull, but not consistent with Franklin’s Gull. The flock all of sudden picked up and I managed to track the Laughing Gull as it flew up, circled about and landed back in with the group. The bird exhibited a broad, black terminal band on its tail which stretched across all rectrices, good for Laughing Gull. Record photos attached.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D500

Lens

300.0 mm f/4.0

ISO

1000

Focal length

420 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/2000 sec

Dimensions

1932 pixels x 1288 pixels

Original file size

1.72 MB