ML614129779

Age and sex

Adult, Unknown sex - 1

Observation details

*Rare but surprisingly regular vagrant to Northeastern North America—perhaps even more likely than L.c. canus in this area. The Swampscott-Lynn beaches area has attracted Common Gulls on a number of occasions, sometimes involving multiple gulls of different ssp. The individual seen today and found on Friday (1/26/24) by Suzanne Sullivan falls well within the parameters for L.c. kamtschatschensis i.e. Kamchatka Gull. Features consistent with Kamchatka include: - Somewhat larger bill being slightly more bulbous towards the gonys (compared to L.c. canus) - Bill color greenish-yellow towards the base becoming more yellow post gonys - The eye is dark but not black - Fairly extensive head streaking most prominent on the hind-neck - Slightly darker gray mantle than RBGU, but not excessively so (enough to notice easily but less than expected) - Large tertial crescent contrasting strongly with mantle - Prominent mirrors on ‘p10’ and ‘p9’ with minute mirrors on ‘p8’ of both wings (smaller on right wing) - Black on outer web of ‘p8’ reaches more than half the way to its coverts - Black markings on outer web of ‘p4’ (only ~10% of L.c. canus may show this). Overall, the features of this bird are consistent with Kamchatka Gull and present a nice example individual in the continuing saga of northeastern North American Common Gulls. Of note, I put primaries in quotation marks (e.g. ‘p10’) because it appears that there are 11 primaries on the right wing (10 on the left)—something we’ve never seen before.

Technical information

Lens

RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM

ISO

640

Focal length

500 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/800 sec

Dimensions

2046 pixels x 1228 pixels

Original file size

1.21 MB