ML302871771

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Carter and I had been chatting for about 20 mins. We enjoyed nice views of a Black-legged Kittiwake flying close in the jetty channel. I noted that the wind felt like it had shifted more westerly. We continued chatting. All of a sudden while very passively scanning the channel with my bare eyes I noted a small gull-like bird. I drew Carter's attention to the bird, and got my bins on it. What we saw was a TINY gull that was not Bonaparte's. I asked "Is that a Little Gull?" almost rhetorically. As soon as I said this Carter jumped and said "Yes! Little Gull". I rushed for my camera in the car and Carter grabbed his scope. By the time we got back to the bird it had lifted off from the water. I tried my best to get as many shots of the bird. The majority of my views were through the camera. Without looking at pictures or really giving it a second guess, we put the word out that we had just had a Little Gull on South Jetty flying toward the Newport Bridge. I looked up from my phone and had one last distant glimpse of the bird as it circled east over the bridge. We never saw it after that. Thinking that Little Gull was crazy enough, we didn't consider other options. Neither of us had ever seen Little Gull (or Ross's for that matter). We set out to refind it. While doing so, several other birders asked for pictures. I sent several back-of-camera shots along, not really scrutinizing them. Soon, Isaac Denzer suggested the unthinkable. Could this be a Ross's Gull? Carter and I were separated at this point. I called him with the thought. We both sat silent on the phone. Had we just found a Ross's Gull while BSing in the rain? We rendezvoused and looked at the pics. Had we just found a Ross's Gull? More scanning the jetty channel and checking guides/phones. Soon the word was in... The general consensus was this bird was a Ross's Gull. We sat, dumbfounded, and poured over the minimal literature we had in the field. With the help of others, we felt that the prominent white trailing edge on the wing, white crown and head, overall lankier structure, tiny bill, wedge-shaped tail, and lack of black tail band were all highly suggestive of Ross's. An absolutely mind-boggling bird. Putative 4th state record. Hope it sticks around for others to see!

Technical information

Model

DMC-FZ300

ISO

100

Focal length

108 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/3.5

Shutter speed

1/250 sec

Dimensions

1138 pixels x 998 pixels

Original file size

126.57 KB