ML232765611

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

There were 7 individuals (4 adults, 3 third-cycle birds, I think) standing on the broken boardwalk under the power lines, southeast of San Francisquito Creek and northwest of the visitor center boardwalk. This location is in Santa Clara County. These were the only gulls perched here, and were not associating with the constant stream of California Gulls flying in to bathe in the mouth of the slough. When I passed back through on my return trip, these same 7 birds were on the flats at the San Francisquito Creek mouth (in San Mateo County), joined by a second-cycle bird and a first-cycle bird, both of which looked like normal Westerns to me. There also was an apparent "pure" first-cycle Glaucous-winged with these birds, as well as 2 more first-cycle birds that may have been hybrids, but were too distant for me to examine closely. There also were many California Gulls and a single Caspian Tern on the flats, but the larger gulls tended to stay apart from the Californias. I only rarely see Western Gulls on my bike rides along the bay in Santa Clara County, and this is easily the most I have seen here. The first of these two distant photos shows 4 individuals (note pink legs and dark mantle color) standing on the boardwalk. The second photos shows several individuals after they had moved onto the flats in San Mateo County, including two third-cycle birds (?) in flight. The individual just to the right of the shopping cart in this photo is the apparent Glaucous-winged. The second individual from the right is a California, as is the far left individual, I think, but all the others are Westerns, I think.

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot SX620 HS

ISO

100

Focal length

112.5 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.6

Shutter speed

1/160 sec

Dimensions

5184 pixels x 3888 pixels

Original file size

4.92 MB