Following some sage advice from Sean Sime regarding the second high tide of the day being more productive for gulls loafing on the beach, I revisited Coney Island this afternoon in search of the Gray-hooded Gull. I immediately noticed that there were way more LAGU than had been present this morning. Luck was on my side as within 5 minutes of walking east on the boardwalk from it's intersection with W. 15th Street, I spotted the gull on the sand a mere 30 feet away. It was near a pool of water that had formed underneath one of the "Palm Tree" sprinklers, about halfway between Nathan's Famous and the Wonder Wheel. Over the next 30 minutes the bird upped about 5x. 3x I was able to follow it as it just did a big loop down the beach and came back to essentially the same spot. The 4x it took off I lost it but Isaac Grant spotted it very quickly after arriving, this time much closer to the ocean. (searching for scraps near two young women sunbathing-hopefully they weren't too offended by our optics trained in their direction!) Unfortunately the last time it took off we lost it to the east. I had to leave at that point and am sorry to hear that it did not show again for those who sat through a major rainstorm... I have uploaded a couple of photos and 2 short videos to my Picasa site here: http://tinyurl.com/3jk3zw6 The bird was not particularly shy and in fact when Isaac and I approached it it actually started walking towards us as if looking for a handout. It was scavenging as one would expect any gull might, looking for various scraps left by the day's beach goers. The gull is very distinctive with its red legs and bill and its sharply delineated hood edge fading forward into a soft gray on the face, highlighting its distinctive pale eye. It is about the size of a Laughing Gull, but seems sleeker and carries itself a bit more upright giving it a slight air of nobility. The wing pattern is also quite striking, a white wedge on the leading edge of the inner primaries and blackish outer primaries with white mirrors on P9 and P10. I found this pattern useful in spotting the gull from a distance. As usual the difficulty of accepting a rarity of this magnitude lies in trying to establish its provenance. Not to play Devil's advocate, but I feel like I have seen this species at the Bronx Zoo, and seem to remember an incident many years ago when that same aviary was breached by some inclement weather. I think it was too many years ago for it to relate to this particular bird, but it shows such a scenario is possible. I wouldn't consider myself an expert at judging the wear of feathers of birds kept in captivity, but it is often brought up in discussing vagrants-as recently as the Hooded Crow on Staten Island. The wonderful flight photos that Andrew Baksh took seem to show a large amount of wear on the tips of the primaries and the tail feathers (I might even call them tattered). Food for thought? anyway...I would be remiss if I didn't thank my wife for being so understanding as to let me chase this bird on her birthday! Let's hope it stays around awhile... Best regards,Shane BlodgettBrooklyn NY --
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