During lunch today I found a juvenile Thayer's Gull at the Stevenson Road compost piles in Tompkins County (Dryden, just east of the Cornell campus).
I was able to get a few photos that you can see in my eBird checklist at the link below. This is a fairly normal-looking juvenile Thayer's Gull (to the extent such a thing exists). I suspect it would be easier to pass this off as a Herring Gull than an Iceland Gull. When scanning through 1st-year Herring Gulls, look for the paler upperparts and note that the primaries on this bird are dark brown, not black as in Herring Gull. It is more obvious in flight when the paler underwing stands out, as does the distinctive upperwing pattern. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9303125 See this story for information on how to embed photos in an eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/embed-photos-in-your-checklists Earlier in the day Tim Lenz found an Eared Grebe at Stewart Park. Photos of gull and grebe here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinicola/ Best wishes, Chris Wood eBird & Neotropical Birds Project Leader Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York http://ebird.orghttp://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
