ML184688131
Contribuidor
Fecha
Localidad
- Edad
- No especificado
- Sexo
- No especificado
Detalles de la observación
The bird was a first cycle, light individual and was only observed while it was floating on the water with a large group of Herring Gulls. It was a bit smaller than the adjacent Herring Gulls, and had a more rounded head and little bit smaller all black bill that had much less (almost no) gonydeal angle than the adjacent HERGs. The underside (ventral surface) of its distal primaries on the folded wing were all white . The dorsal surfaces of the primaries were a light brown in the bright sun with bright whitish tips creating a crescent on the tip of each primary. These brown (instead of black) dorsal surfaces of the primaries and white ventral surface to the folded primaries exclude Herring Gull as an alternative species. Dorsal surfaces of the primaries were darker than the dorsal surface of the tertials and the dorsal surface of the tertials had solid light brown centers. Glaucous and Glaucous-winged Gulls would be additional possible alternatives. However, first cycle birds of both species would have been larger than the adjacent Herring Gulls instead of smaller, and would not have had rounded heads. Additionally, a first cycle Glaucous Gull would have had a two-toned bill and the primaries of both species would not have been darker than the rest of the body as they were in the individual observed. This bird was seen in direct, bright light coming from behind me and somewhat to my right and was very roughly 350 yards in front of me and slightly to my right. I was using a Kowa TSN 884 spotting scope with 20x-60x zoom eye-piece. Digiscoping was hindered by wind, but two sub-marginal pictures are shown below. The first is really bad, but is included because it shows the bird's more rounded head and smaller size relative to the Herring Gulls. The bird is at the top center of this picture immediately in front of a Herring Gull. It is mostly hidden in this picture because it is in a wave trough. The second picture is included because it documents that the primaries of this bird are darker than the tertials and the tertials are solid-centered. The bird was much more patterned than the picture indicates, but my camera was unable to accurately pick up the coloration or pattern of the plumage in the bright sunlight. However, both were easy to discern through the scope. I darkened the second picture slightly because it depicted the bird as much whiter overall than it was in the field . It is still too much of an un-patterned white to accurately represent the bird.
Información técnica
- Model
- Canon PowerShot SX730 HS
- ISO
- 160
- Focal length
- 4.3 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/4.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/125 sec
- Dimensions
- 1234 pixels x 2203 pixels
- Original file size
- 689.87 KB