Congratulations Shane! I certainly concur that this is bona fide 'Mew' Gull rather than stunted Ring-billed Gull, which as you know do occur. Photos of the spread wing tips patterns will be very useful in locking down the record to subspecies, but from the shots of the standing bird it looks reasonable for nominate canus.
Teasing out the subspecies is always worthwhile, not only as a learning experience but because of the possibility of a future split between Short-billed Gull (brachyrhynchus), Common Gull (canus & heinei) and Kamchatka Gull (kamtschatschensis). The previous Brooklyn record that you mentioned was seen on 8-9 Apr 2007 (rather than 2009) and as you say was a 2nd-cycle bird (NYSARC 2007-77-A/B). Let's hope some good Samaritan took your scope into safe keeping and will see one of your flyers. Cheers, Angus -- Angus Wilson New York City & The Springs, NY, USA http://birdingtotheend.blogspot.com/ -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
