Hi everyone, Today I went out to check for the King Eider Pat Jones reported recently at Point Lookout. There weren't a whole lot of eiders and they were all Common (plus a socially-ambitious female Black Scoter). While looking for a better angle on the eiders, I noticed a pale 1st cycle gull sitting among some 30 Herring and Ring-billed Gulls on the westernmost of Point Lookout's three jetties. There wasn't much about it that didn't suggest a Thayer's, honestly. The biggest red flag for me were the primaries, which were a medium brown. The bird was not tiny, as some 1st cycle Icelands seem to be, nor really an obviously petite gull considering its company. But closer inspection showed a fairly small, all dark bill and a nice round head - so the more you looked, the more delicate the build really seemed. The little group was pretty active on the jetty, with birds alternating from sitting on the water to sitting on the rocks. I was able to observe this bird in fight, and it showed the "classic" Thayer's two-toned primaries, with quite obvious dark inner webs and light outer webs.
Most of the Thayer's Gulls I have seen are 2D in books and various larophile websites, so I would love input from others. I was able to obtain a single photograph of it through binoculars and a 2.0 megapixel digital camera (sorry, sorry). It can be viewed here hopefully: https://picasaweb.google.com/115534342141361703558/January2013#5834933925949672706 Best, Brendan Fogarty Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Biological Engineering -- 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/ --
