ML282266351

Age and sex

Immature Unknown sex - 1

Behaviors

Flying

Media notes

Included to show the left underwing and right primary pattern.

Observation details

Continuing Second-cycle found this morning by Matt Thompson. Images of this bird were posted to the North American Gull Facebook group where the unanimous consensus was for Glaucous-winged Gull within the variation for a pure bird. In particular, this bird received the blessings from a few notable gull experts: Amar Ayaash and Steve Hampton. Amar's thoughts: "Looks really good bill-wise" "slam dunk for me" "To me, the worries you list, especially eye placement is not an issue. The primary pattern would go down as a moderately pigmented bird within range. I had little doubt about this individual once I saw the zoomed in photos." Steve's thoughts: "Solid Second-cycle Glaucous-winged Gull for me. And I've seen thousands of Glaucous-winged, Cook Inlet, and Olympic Gulls." Also Nick Mrvelj of the Oregon Records Committee opined on this bird saying (after questioned about the primaries and eye placement of this bird): "[F]rom my West Coast perspective, this bird is a safe GWGU. This appears as a second winter bird to me, and a fairly standard one at that. The bill is variable at this age, and some have lighter bases than others. The bland, blended, smudgy, pale brownish-grayish-bluish aspect of the incoming mantle, wing coverts, tertials, and scapulars is classic GWGU for me. The first thing I look at when sizing up GWGU and potential GWGU hybrids are the exposed primary tips. At this date, I feel these are well within range for how pale a “normal” GWGU should look, and definitely safe in my opinion. I only start reaching into the GWGU hybrid bag when a bird has darker primary tips than this (typically). And as for the eye and face, they seem fine. There’s a surprising, subtle variability of facial expressions and facial structures amongst GWGU, at least from the 1000’s of GWGU I’ve scrutinized over the years. I share Amar’s enthusiasm that this is the real deal, and feel that this is a bird that record’s committees can safely sign off on." If accepted by MOURC this would be the 6th state record and second for Dakota County.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 80D

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

ISO

800

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/500 sec

Dimensions

3131 pixels x 2087 pixels

Original file size

4.1 MB