ML610789633

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

***Very Rare and Very Late. Picked up by NK heading west at 8:07am, not too far out. The first thing I noticed was the thick wedge of black on the top side of the primaries and the prominent "M" pattern due to the contrast of white on the inner wings. I called out "Sabine's Gull" and Andy Guthrie got on it. Both agreeing on the identification, attention shifted to getting documentation photos as a Sabine's Gull any time of the year is rare, let alone in early November (we tend to think of Sabine's Gull as a September bird along the lakeshore in Monroe County). By the time our cameras were up (mine was sitting on a picnic table a few paces to the right), the bird was at center, below the horizon, but it was working out to the northwest, getting further away. Documentation photos are attached, which show a black wedge on the primaries contrasting with a thick white trailing end, white tail, and darker gray in the middle. The hast of the situation did not allow me to properly age the bird, and none of my photographs provide enough detail to make out whether the bird had a black tail band (indicating a juvenile) or even the color of the mantle (light gray of an adult versus the darker brownish of a juvenile), although one photo does show a particularly dark mantle. Perhaps Andy aged the bird from his views. County bird. First November record for Monroe County (according to eBird).

Technical information

Model

NIKON D850

ISO

1250

Focal length

500 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/640 sec

Dimensions

589 pixels x 367 pixels

Original file size

42.37 KB