ML619026628
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Location
- Age
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Observation details
Very surprising bird for May but one was reported at Discovery a few days ago. I first saw the bird in flight at close range. It hovered briefly, then did a head-first dive to the water. I was then able to observe the bird sitting on the water. In flight I could see a dark terminal band at the end of the tail and a bold, distinct, black "M" pattern on the upper side of the wings. There was a clear, dark, partial "collar" on the nape of the neck, as well as an additional dark patch behind the eye. The eye itself also appeared dark, creating the impression of three, quite distinct, dark areas on the head/neck. Sabine's gull ruled out because the "M" pattern on the wings was entirely black, and was thinner and more sharply defined than the "broad" gray-and-black "W" typical of a Sabine's. Also, I believe the dark terminal band on the tail is inconsistent with a mature Sabine's. The head of this bird was mostly white (except for the aforementioned black markings), which also helped to rule out immature/juvenile Sabine's. Finally, the dark coloring on the name of the neck was a well-defined partial collar, not an indistinct darker patch; the partial collar and the dark area behind the eye were clearly separate from each other, unlike a first summer Sabine's gull. Juvenile Bonaparte's gull ruled out due to the sharply defined, partial black "collar" and the much more distinct "M" pattern on the wings. Indeed, the obvious dark coloring along the entire outer half of the leading edge of the wing (i.e. distal to the wrist joint) was the first field mark I saw, and this was what first drew my attention to the bird. Also, there was no black coloring on the tips of the secondaries or the inner primaries (not sure about the outer few primaries on the trailing edge of the wing). Finally, to the best of my knowledge, Bonies don't do tern-like head first plunge dives. It might also be worth noting that I normally see Bonaparte's gulls in groups and I did not see any Bonies near the fishing pier today. I managed to get some very low quality digiscope photos of the bird sitting on the water. I was initially hesitant to upload them because they are extremely poor but, if you look closely, I believe they do show the dark partial collar, the dark "ear patch" and the dark eye. The bird's back appears very dark in one of the photos: I believe this is an artifact of the low spatial resolution. Viewed through the scope, the bird's back was a lightish gray.
Technical information
- Dimensions
- 117 pixels x 130 pixels
- Original file size
- 5.51 KB