I also spent some time yesterday and today checking the Long Island barrier beaches for Lesser Black-backed Gulls.
Of 15 individuals I managed to study and photograph, the age distribution was 3 juveniles, 5 second calendar-year, 5 third calendar-year, and 2 older immatures that were difficult to assign (either third or fourth calendar-year); I haven't seen any full adults personally since 5 September. The juveniles are very beautiful, and the next couple of weeks offer our best opportunity to see them. Very few remain this far north during the winter, and when they return in numbers to over-summer here, their SY plumages are, to put it charitably, less attractive. The various immature plumages I've been seeing lately are illustrated here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/96951581@N02/29944469171/in/photostream/ A new cohort of juvenile Herring Gulls has also come in; these look quite different from our local juvs, with fresh and very contrasty plumage and all-black bills. Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] on behalf of David Klauber [[email protected]] Sent: Friday, September 30, 2016 2:07 PM To: NY Birds Subject: [nysbirds-l] Lesser Black-backed Gulls barrier beaches Long Island Nassau & Sufflok counties This morning Bobby Rosetti and I checked various parking lots from Jones Beach West End to Robert Moses. We saw at least 25-30 different Lesser Black-backed Gulls in all plumages from juvenile through adult. Specifically they were in the west End 2 lot, Robt Moses field 2 and 5, Captree upper lot, and Tobay. In addition Bobby saw between 8-10 at Point Lookout. A nice study in Lesser BB Gull plumages -- 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/ --
