ML24014111
Автор
Дата
Локація
- Вік
- Не вказано
- Стать
- Не вказано
Деталі спостереження
I first saw this gull swimming near me on the east side of the south basin (the main basin south of Mines) at around 11:25am and was immediately struck by the blackness of this bird's upperparts. My initial thought was that wymani Western Gulls could be darker-backed than I'd realized--but then it walked onto a bar of mud, revealing bright lime-yellow legs and I realized this was a Kelp Gull. I immediately contacted a number of other birders and posted on LaCobirds. It was slightly smaller than nearby Western Gulls, but still roughly similar in size; shapewise it was a little flatter-bodied and longer-winged, looking more attenuated overall. The bill was bright yellow, almost orangey-yellow, with a large and bold red (almost blood-red) gonydeal spot; overall the bill was more orange, and more slender, than nearby Western Gulls, although still with a fair gonydeal expansion, somewhat like a Herring Gull in shape. The head was completely unmarked white; although big and blocky-headed like Western and Glaucous-winged Gulls, it sometimes gave me more of a flat-headed impression, although this varied with posture. I had good views of the bird's eye early on; the iris was a pale lemon-yellow, and the orbital-ring was a deep blood-red. The underparts and tail were completely white, although there was some orange-red schmutz evident on the belly. The mantle was exceedingly dark, quite distinctly darker than even the darkest adult wymani Western Gulls. There were faint brown hues, most strongly apparent in the greater and median secondary coverts; overall the blackness of the upperparts tended toward the brown side of black, rather than blue. The white tertial crescent was distinctly smaller than nearby Western Gulls, and the white spot near the base of the smallest tertial was quite small. The primaries were black, with only minuscule white tips, much smaller than virtually any other adult or near-adult gull present. The underside of the outermost primaries were also dark--this made the bird stand out later when the gull's mantle and legs were obstructed from view by other gulls. The legs were completely, solidly lime-yellow-green, without the hint of pinkish webbing that some yellow-legged Western Gulls attain. While somewhat tentative, the bird's identification seems relatively straightforward to me. Yellow-footed Gull can be easily eliminated by this bird's slender bill (YFGU should be thicker than WEGU, if anything), bright red orbital ring (yellow in YFGU), slightly smaller size than WEGU, extremely dark mantle, and green tone to the legs. Belcher's Gull, also very dark-backed and yellow-legged, differs in even more respects, with a black tail band, very different bill pattern, dark eye, lack of white primary tips, etc. Lesser Black-backed Gull is perhaps the most worth considering in eliminating; this bird's similar size to a Western Gull, completely unmarked head, green tone to the legs, lack of dark marks on the bill, small white spots on the upperside of the primaries and dark underside to outer primaries all point to Kelp over Lesser Black-backed. It is also worth noting that the darkest-backed subspecies of Lesser Black-backed (fuscus) is both the smallest and the rarest in North America. One potential problem is that this bird lacks a white mirror on p10; perhaps this bird is a 3rd or 4th-cycle. *edit* I think Alvaro Jaramillo makes a good case that this bird is the same one that was in northern California last May as that bird also lacked a white mirror on p10 (I'd forgotten that, despite voting to accept that bird!). Amar Ayyash has also pointed out a vetula Kelp Gull that lacks a white mirror on p10: http://gull-research.org/kelp/pages/ad45.html Pending CBRC acceptance, this would be a second record for California, and more importantly, a first for Los Angeles County.
Технічна інформація
- Модель
- DMC-FZ200
- ISO
- 100
- Фокусна відстань
- 108 mm
- Спалах
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/4.0
- Витримка
- 1/1600 sec
- Розміри
- 3443 pixels x 2295 pixels
- Розмір вихідного файлу
- 2.9 MB