There were TWO GLAUCOUS GULLS and one ICELAND GULL at the Coxsackie Boat Launch today. One Glaucous was an adult (very rare - the first I've seen there) and an immature (the same age class and probably the same bird that was there yesterday). Also present - an immature ICELAND GULL. No sign of yesterday's Lesser Black-backed Gull. The gull numbers were way down today anyway.
I'll post pictures of the adult, and the immature Glaucous and Iceland Gulls side by side on the hmbirds yahoo site. Another pale wing tip gull (possibly a Thayer's) was not seen well enough to confirm the identification before it flew off. In flight, we could see that it had dark upper wing tips and pale under wing tips.. And there was another dark-backed gull that did not match any of the known types. A bizarre hybrid is one possibility. . Oh those darn gulls. If they weren't so attractive, graceful in flight, photogenic, and full of potential for really exotic rarities, they'd be hard to like. To add to the Catskill-Coxsackie CBC "present during count week, but not seen on count day" category, there was and adult PEREGRINE FALCON at the boat launch this afternoon. Elsewhere in the count circle in the same category: SAVANNAH SPARROW - a flock of 12 seen the day before the count, and one seen today; EASTERN MEADOWLARK several seen today. Drat! Rich Guthrie New Baltimore The Greenish County [email protected] www://blog.timesunion.com/birding [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
