Folks, This morning, Dan Maynard and I met at Anthem Pond in Broomfield. I have no idea if this is the actual name of this body of frozen water, but it is squarely in the Anthem subdivision of Broomfield. I had checked the pond at Sheridan and Lowell first, but found no gulls there. A few hundred gulls roosted in a tight group on the ice at Anthem, just east of Lowell. We spotted a Glaucous Gull-looking bird right off the bat. It was darker than any juvi Glaucous Gull that I had seen before, but otherwise was very large (larger than nearby Herring Gulls) and blocky looking, with a bi-colored pink and black bill. As I reported earlier, we concluded it must be a very young Glaucous Gull. But after examining photos, I believe the bird is probably a Glaucous X Herring Gull, based on the pattern of the extended wing (darker outer primaries, paler inner primaries, darker secondaries). I would gladly entertain other ID possibilities.
Next, Dan pointed out a difficult to find, adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, buried, sleeping and head-on to our view. There was at least one adult Thayer's Gull as well as an adult California Gull. A dozen or so adult Herring Gulls rounded out the remaining non-Ring-billed Gulls. We continued to scrutinized this group of birds for 30 minutes or so, as more gulls continually streamed in from the northeast. Shortly after Tom McConnell arrived, the tight group of gulls dispersed somewhat allowing us to see individuals that were buried by other birds earlier. It was then we scoped a phenotypical, adult Kumlien's Iceland Gull. The bird was next to an adult Thayer's Gull and by comparison, had a more rounded head and smaller bill that appeared greenish yellow near the base. The folded primaries looked pale gray and white, compared to the blackish and white primaries of the Thayer's Gull. It had a dirty yellow iris that appeared pale compared with the dark iris of the Thayer's. Several of the birds took flight, including the Iceland Gull. It's wing-tips looked nearly all white in flight, but photos reveal a pale gray outer web web on the outer primaries. The overall mantle color was about a shade paler than the Herring Gulls. This bird, along with a couple dozen others, circled once and flew towards the northeast. It is very likely the bird had been there the entire time we observed the group, but wasn't clearly visible. 'Thanks' go out to Ira! Glenn Walbek Castle Rock, CO http://www.pbase.com/gwalbek/2012_birds -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
