A few hundred large gulls (most Herring with smaller numbers of Ring-bills) continue on the upper Niagara River in Buffalo from the source of the Niagara River at Lake Erie upriver to roughly the foot of Ontario Street in Buffalo's Riverside. A trip to the area this afternoon (1/30) turned up 2 Iceland Gulls (first-cycles) and 2 Glaucous Gulls (1st and 2nd-cycles) sitting/swimming out near Donnelly's Pier as scoped from the top of the tower at Erie Basin Marina. Further upriver from the Ontario Street boat launch were several large groups of gulls sitting in close to shore on the ice floes, many of which were within binocular distance and easily seen from within the vehicle. Highlights here included 2 Glaucous Gulls (adult and first-cycle), 3 Iceland Gulls (1st and 2nd-cycles, adult), and the same Thayer's Gull (2nd-cycle) that was around Rich Marine back on 22 January. Of interest was the 2nd-cycle Iceland that was gleaming white, so much that at first glance the bird looked much like an albino Ring-billed Gull. After a bit of study, it was obviously a (very small and pale) Iceland, and essentially looked like a mini 2nd-cycle Glaucous Gull, and thus appearing more like a nominate (L.g. glaucoides) Iceland Gull from the NE Atlantic rather than the expected darker Kumlien's-types. A photo of one of the Glaucous Gulls can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/jmpawli10
Jim Pawlicki Amherst, NY -- 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 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
