I met up with Cole Wild after he called me about some interesting Gulls. While we were there we saw a dark backed Gull at Lake Loveland late this afternoon. When seen in flight it had noticeable pink legs. When seen at the water it was about the size of a California Gull and a little lighter backed than a near by Lesser Black-backed Gull. It also had a clean white head and it was too far away to get any color on the eye or the iris. Then we started paying more attention to it in flight. We did not see any "string of pearls" on the wingtips and there appeared to be more black on the underside of the wingtips than expected for Slaty-backed Gull. At one point in time when the bird opened its wing while sitting on the water we saw what appeared to be a white P9, but i admit the bird was towards the center of the lake and it was too far away to be certain. I would say it is a probable Western Gull or a slight chance of it being a hybrid. There will be people there in the morning trying to relocate this bird.
While watching this bird we saw another Gull that was larger than the Herring Gulls. It had a lighter back with the wingtips just slightly darker than the back. It had a very large bill and a lot of streaking on the neck and head. This bird was either a Glaucous-winged Gull or a hybrid with Glaucous-winged genes. Also present were at least three Thayer's Gulls and one Lesser Black-backed Gull. Cade Cropper Loveland -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
