ML37555441
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Juvenile, Unknown sex - X
Media notes
Overexposed photo darkened and cropped in Photoshop
Observation details
Found a small gull by itself on Lake Wapogasset (Polk County) while cruising the perimeter looking for birds. As it sat on the water I could see a barred brown back, small black bill, a dark grayish brown smudging on the cheek behind the eye, the nape and sides of neck. I cut the engine and managed to take three pictures before and after it flew off. In flight what really stood out was the large triangular patch of white on the wing stretching from the trailing edge of the wing from the body to the primaries and forward to the wrist. The wing coverts were brown and the primaries mostly black as seen from above. All these key points were pointed out verbally to my wife Irene. The white tail had a terminal black band. After two near passes by the boat it flew off about 150 feet where it dove into the water lightly, followed by several short hops and dipping its head and beak into the water. After that it flew off and joined a small flock of a dozen Bonaparte’s Gull. While I did not realize what I had seen right away, I got good close looks at the Bonaparte’s Gulls when I moved closer as they were flying all about the boat. I looked for the mystery gull but I did not see the Sabine’s Gull again but noticed the differences, especially they lacked the large white wing patch and most had clear black spots on their faces and eyes. This was a mixed flock of adults and immature birds.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon PowerShot SX50 HS
- ISO
- 400
- Focal length
- 215 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/6.5
- Shutter speed
- 1/160 sec
- Dimensions
- 1261 pixels x 1039 pixels
- Original file size
- 495.91 KB