ML22605671

Age and sex

Adult, Unknown sex - X

Observation details

Bird came in to roost on water sometime just prior to 4:40 pm. It was bigger and more 'stretched out' than the RB Gulls, had a dark (but not black) mantle, fitting a slate-gray color, had yellow eye, yellow bill with red markings on lower mandible (and in the field it appeared to have alittle black near tip of lower mandible). It had minor dark flecks around head giving overall head look as a 'dirty white', but around the eye it had darker feathering around eye giving impression that it had been punched in the eye, the primary tips had white (but hard to see on early photos and while viewing in the field, only later did they become more visible). Since white tips present, but hard to see, I'm assuming this was a bird that has just molted into its 4th winter adult plumage. Bird did not have a big chest, nor black-back, nor clean white head. This gull obviously using this Lake for roosting and this bird and the very large #'s of RB's that are now present probably came in after the Dec 28th ice/snow storm. The odds seem fairly good that this species will continue to roost overnight here until there's a significant cold front that would freeze out part of the Lake.

Technical information

Dimensions

965 pixels x 689 pixels

Original file size

274.91 KB