For the second straight day, I checked fields along Youngstown-Wilson Road (Y-W Rd) on my way home from work today. The first field I checked was on the north side of Y-W Rd, where Braley Road goes off to the southeast. There were several hundred gulls here, including adult and second-cycle GLAUCOUS, 3 adult ICELAND, 1 adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED, and the best, an adult SLATY-BACKED GULL! This was a large gull, equal to the size of the largest Herring Gulls in the field and it showed a relatively short primary extension beyond the end of the tail. It showed a dark gray mantle, about equivalent to a Lesser Black-backed Gull, although I had no comparisons with dark-mantled gulls, and a very broad white tertial crescent as well as a prominent scapular crescent. The tertial and scapular crescents were wider than on all of the Herring Gulls I compared it with. The head and neck looked dingy but not heavily streaked with streaking concentrated on the crown, around the eyes, and on the lower hindneck. By the patchiness of the streaking, I suspect the bird was molting its head and neck feathers. The bill was yellow with a smallish red gonydial spot. The spread outer primaries showed black on the outer webs only and a row of prominent white spots formed by white tongue-tips and white mirrors. These spots appeared to be on all five of the outermost primaries, which would mean that p9 and p10 had white mirrors and p6-p7-p8 had white tongue-tips. The white apical spots on the outer primaries were relatively large. The legs were not usually visible due to the grass and weed growth in the field but when they were, they were seen to be a rich reddish pink. The eyes were pale. I was able to get photos which show most everything except the wing pattern.
FINDING THIS BIRD: Over the years we have noticed that many of the gulls that feed at the landfill in the Town of Lewiston like to roost on Lake Ontario. In the spring, when gulls appear in fields much more often than they do in winter or fall, it makes sense that a Slaty-backed Gull would show up here, as the species is known for having a taste for dumps and this field is very near where the gulls like to roost on the lake. Checking in the afternoon will likely improve your chances over the morning but it should be noted that some of the gulls were finding food in this field so they may be there in the morning as well. There are other fields that are quite nearby that should also be checked. One is on the southeast quadrant of Y-W Rd and Porter-Center Rd, perhaps a mile east of here. This field also had lots of gulls this evening but I had little time left to look them over. Nevertheless, I had two first-cycle Iceland and a third-cycle Glaucous here. There were also 41 SNOW GEESE in this field, with Canada Geese - this is my highest personal count for Snow Geese this far west in NY. A third field that had many gulls is about another mile further east along Y-W Rd, on the south side and about halfway between Dickersonville and Ransomville Roads. Good luck if you try for this bird! Willie ---------------- Willie D'Anna Betsy Potter Wilson, NY dannapotterATroadrunner.com http://www.betsypottersart.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
