Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
Was trying to turn a first cycle herring into a California (unsuccessfully) when this bird flew in and landed in the same area. Was able to observe for around twenty minutes in direct comparison with multiple herring and ring-billed gulls. Distance was just too far to get useful photos, (still need to go through my digis but pretty sure they’re trash) but plenty close enough for the old Kowa. Plumage similar to HERG in basically all aspects. The black in the wingtips was very restricted, looked quite black at rest but in spread-wing there appeared to be white shafts through the black in most of the feathers and the underside showed almost no black at all. Just a tiny bit on the very tips of the outer primaries. Perhaps a bit more on the very outer primary or so. Structurally the bird was quite different, very petite build, I’d say even on the small end for Thayer’s. Definitely bigger than the ringers but also very obviously smaller than all the HERGs. Not as barrel-chested as HERG. Bill was cute and short, yellow with red spot near the tip. Far from that big vicious bulbous bill many HERGs show. Head was round and cute, not pulled out into the bill, with a dark eye. Legs bright pink.
Technical information
- Model
- iPhone 8 Plus
- Lens
- iPhone 8 Plus back dual camera 3.99mm f/1.8
- ISO
- 20
- Focal length
- 4 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/1.8
- Shutter speed
- 1/415 sec
- Dimensions
- 1139 pixels x 854 pixels
- Original file size
- 256.84 KB