Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
Probable, seen in the Pond South of Washington. First seen by Jon Dunn. First cycle bird. Originally, when we saw it, we mistook it for a small, pale Glaucous-winged Gull, which it was associating with when we first saw it. However, the color between the two birds was completely different. The presumed Iceland was much more buffy overall, with fine checkered wings. --The primaries were whitish, with a slight trace of brown on the primary tips only discernible in close views. The tertials were had faint barring on them, and did not have any brown centers on them like one would expect for Thayers. At one point, the Iceland swam right by a Thayers, where it was clear that the bird was much paler overall, with pale primaries and tertials. -- The only thing that pointed against the bird being an Iceland was its large size. It was slightly larger than the Thayers Gull, but slightly smaller and similar in size to a Herring. Its structure was otherwise similar to Thayers. -- The bill was solidly black (with maybe a small pinkish base to the lower mandible in good light). The bill was small and slender (much smaller than GWGU), and similar to Thayer's in size and shape. -- The eye was dark, with a faint dark smudge surrounding the eye. The legs were dull pink. -- The wings were very whitish and checkered overall (not like a GWGU at all). The tertials were whitish with some faint barring. The bird did not appear worn or bleached at all. -- In flight, the bird appeared ghostly pale. The tail was pale except for a very faint dark band at the end of it (the band covered about half the tail) -- Another very striking mark was that the undertail coverts were heavily barred, which supports the ID as an Iceland Gull. I am leaning toward the bird being a Kumlien's Gull. Although it does seem rather pale for that subspecies, I think that the bird was overall to dark to be a Glaucoides. Photos attached below. I am open to opinions. Other observers were Jon Dunn, Beatrix Schwarz, and Andy Birch. Others who obeserved the bird believe it is a Kumliens Gull
Technical information
- Model
- Canon PowerShot SX50 HS
- ISO
- 1600
- Focal length
- 11.2 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/5.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/60 sec
- Dimensions
- 4000 pixels x 3000 pixels
- Original file size
- 2.67 MB