ML454137981

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Behaviors

Flying

Media notes

top bird with Laughing Gull below

Observation details

Poorly seen northbound flyover heading away from us with 2 Laughing Gulls at north end; hooded gull, smaller and more compact overall with shorter, more rounded wings than Laughing Gulls it was with, overall a paler bird as well, dark tipped primaries with inner white band, the latter flashed prominently on both upper and underwings with the relatively distant views; my photos suggest an adult type bird (ASY) with possibly some wing molt/wear (?) but the very poor photo quality is less than ideal for properly aging this bird accurately; poor, heavily cropped photos While up on the dunes at salt pond I came across 3 gulls heading north and away from us which appeared to be 2 Laughing Gulls and 1 non-laughing gull. I got bins on the trio for a few seconds and quickly noted that compared to the Laughing Gulls the bird was clearly smaller, more compact, and was paler overall, additionally I was picking up on dark primary tips and obvious white flashes across the primaries on both the upper and underwings, the bird also appeared to be hooded. At this point I reached for my camera and called out for everyone to get on the trio and that I believed the smaller bird was a Franklin’s Gull. We watched the birds continue north and out of sight, unfortunately never really afforded better views. Shortly afterwards, while on the phone with Tom Boyle who was out at the tidal cut/point (the direction that the birds were heading), a groupme alert sounded off across our phones, the alert ended up being from Milton Collins reporting a flyover Franklin’s Gull along the Fisherman’s Trail (Milton had independently spotted and photographed the trio a bit south of us). Despite a search along the tidal cut we could not refind the bird and to knowledge it was not seen again.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF400mm f/5.6L USM

ISO

2500

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/8000 sec

Dimensions

1586 pixels x 1057 pixels

Original file size

666.73 KB