ML415138881

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Continuing. The gull was observed in the southwest corner of Little Lake Butte des Morts from 2:15 to 2:45pm by myself and Christine Williamson. The gull was initially observed swimming some distance away. It then flew in short stages closer too us, eventually coming in to an ice shelf about 80 to 120 yards distant. It bathed in the water at the edge of the ice, then hopped on the ice and preened. Skies were overcast; the sun was behind us and to our right as we observed the gull. I took a number of photographs. The following notes were dictated into a hand-recorder during the course of the observation: In size, larger than some but not larger than all of the approximately 200 Herring Gulls with which it was associating. The legs are pink, the feet a slightly richer pink. The legs and feet were not strongly pinker than legs/feet of the nearby Herring Gulls, but the feet were slightly stronger pink. The bill was a pale yellow with a nearly complete subterminal black ring and a small red spot near the tip of the mandible. The folded wings extended past the tip of the tail on the resting bird with two primary tips past the end of the tail, with p8 about even with the end of the tail. The scapular crescent was not larger than those of the nearby Herring Gulls; the tertial crescent was also comparable in extent to those of the nearby Herring Gulls. The upperparts were a very dark gray, perhaps slightly darker than the upperparts of a graelsii Lesser Black-backed Gull, though none was present for direct comparison. The streaking on the head was pretty sparse, and fine across the crown, while on the hindneck it became splotchier but still with a definite streaked pattern. The eye looks pretty small in the head; iris color was not determined. In flight the trailing edge of the wing was white and broad, but not especially broad; it was at least as broad as that of every Herring Gull flying nearby and broader than some. The primary pattern as seen on the upper surface of the wing was as follows: apical spots visible on five primaries (p6-p10) past the tertials on the folded wing; a very nearby black subterminal bar separating the white tip from a large white mirror on p10, with p10 colored solid black interior to the mirror; a smaller but still sizeable white mirror on p9, with again solid black interior to the mirror; the "string of pearls" effect was noticeably on definitely p6-p7 and probably p8, with a white apical spot, broad black band, then the "pearl" white spot, and more black coloration as one moved from the tip to the interior of p6 and p7, and this pattern vaguely present on p8 but hard to see with the white "pearl" small. The underside of p10 seen on the resting bird showed a white tip, a very narrow black band, the large white mirror, and then dark grayish toward the base of the feather. The underside of the primaries in flight did not appear blackish, but rather were gray. The "string of pearls" was evident but hard to see on the underwing. The tail was entirely white. The underparts of the bird were all white. There is a dark splotch on the head just above the left eye; this possibly could have been caused by misarranged feathers. The head was not especially large or blocky for a large gull, and had a relatively rounded character to it. The breast is a clean white.

Technical information

Model

E4500

ISO

100

Focal length

26.4 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.5

Shutter speed

5/566 sec

Dimensions

2272 pixels x 1704 pixels

Original file size

1.15 MB