ML313882331
Larus sp. Larus sp.
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Media notes
upper row, the two gulls of interest; lower left quadrant an adult winter herring gull; lower right quadrant darker bird to upper left a bird of interest - perhaps Thayer's gull? - and lower right an adult herring gull (image in lower right taken 4 MAR 2021 same location)
Observation details
two gulls darker on mantle and upper wings than the one gull we identify at herring gull. these gulls close in size to herring gull if perhaps more gracile. these gulls seem too large to be ring-billed gulls. these two gulls perhaps have dark irises. each of these gulls appears to have different size mirrors on wings that extend well beyond end of tail when at rest. or possibly mirrors distorted by overlap of primaries? are these just variations on herring gull or something unusual and interesting - perhaps Thayer's gulls as a subspecies of Iceland gulls? we have separate images of three gulls near each other on the Kennebec River upstream of 2 cent bridge. each image itself is informative, but we combined all images in both a word document and a spreadsheet to allow side by side comparison. a useful exercise, but we remain uncertain of the best identification. if we can save either composite as a jpg file, we will insert here. a screen shot of spreadsheet seems our only option even if detail is sacrificed. see below: EDITED 22 MAR 2021: after consultation with a much better birder, we leave this entry as originally written, but doubt these are anything but herring gulls showing fresh plumage or glistening differently in sun and sun reflected on water than nearby gulls
Technical information
- Dimensions
- 909 pixels x 593 pixels
- Original file size
- 140.31 KB