ML609856233

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Chris Hill initially located this bird on a sandbar at the mouth of Hog Inlet from his vantage point on Waites Island. Chris observed the bird bathing and noted its smaller size in comparison to nearby Laughing Gulls as well as an obvious dark hood. When flapping its wings, Chris indicated they appeared to be shorter and broader than a Laughing Gull's. When the bird flew, Chris noted its white tail with crisp dark sub-terminal band but was unable to tell from the distance viewed if the band extended to it's outer feathers. Chris then contacted me to see if I might have an interest in attempting to relocate the bird from the Cherry Grove side of the inlet. While the lighting from that side wasn't as cooperative as Chris had indicated it had been from Waites, the distance was likely a bit closer. After attempting to sort through a rather tightly-packed group of gulls and terns for quite some time, a few relocated to a smaller sandbar nearby. At that point, a small dark-mantled gull was seen similar in color to nearby Laughing Gulls. While it essentially remained motionless with its head tucked the entire time I viewed it, it had an obvious dark hood, an almost perfectly white nape and bold white eye arcs could occasionally be seen when its head would turn slightly. The bird's legs were dark and considerably shorter than those of nearby Laughing Gulls while its size was noticeably smaller than the Laughing Gulls but larger than a couple Sandwich Terns that passed by it. Small white tips were noted on the primaries which Chris indicated would indicate a first-cycle bird. While a somewhat browner wing-panel would be expected on a first-cycle bird, that could not be seen in the primary photo included here. A small section of that photo was "tweaked" though by decreasing its exposure and greatly increasing its saturation. At that point, a distinction between the gray mantle and the somewhat browner tones of the wing panel could indeed be seen.

Technical information

Dimensions

1078 pixels x 631 pixels

Original file size

67.49 KB