ML506301901
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
Adult California like gull seen associating with a large group of Ring-billed. Glided over the point, keeping to itself, surveyed the area below, and then headed southeast towards the dam. Large white-headed gull with medium toned gray mantle, solid mirror to P10 with no black tip seen, greasy brownish streaked nape, dark-eyed look, yellowish bill with dark tip. Too backlit to assess details on bill markings, but no ring was noted. Gray mantle seemed darker than Herring. Some contrast between flight feathers and coverts noted. Underwing tone was not plain like Herring. While I had no direct side by side comparison for this individual with nearby RBGU, my impression was it appeared smaller than Herring, but larger than the numerous RBGU in flight. Certainly did not have the hulking large presence of a Herring coursing about with RBGU to me. My initial thought was for CAGU, but decided to get further input from a few experts, review photos, and reference my gull books before reporting to full species. Seemed to match up with Sibley's illustration of a Great Basin type California Gull. Heard back from one west coast birder/reviewer who agreed that this gull looks good for CAGU. Thanks David! Photo'd.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 90D
- ISO
- 400
- Focal length
- 600 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/10.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/800 sec
- Dimensions
- 1782 pixels x 1188 pixels
- Original file size
- 188.87 KB