Dear Cobirders, If you are not interested in gulls, delete now.
Lake Loveland continues to host an awesome gull flock each afternoon in the northwest corner. Today from 2:45 to 3:45, I counted: Ring-billed Gull – 300 American Herring Gulls – 40 Vega Herring Gull – 1 adult Thayer’s Gull – 6 (1 adult, 1 2nd-cycle, 4 1st-cycle) Lesser Black-backed Gull – 5 (3 adult, 1 3rd-cycle, 1 juv) Glaucous Gull – 1 (1st-cycle) Photos of some of the more interesting of these gulls can be viewed at http://www.pbase.com/quetzal/lakelovelandgulls12282011. At 3:47, the flock flew southwest, after being spooked by a Bald Eagle a couple of times. I drove over to Carter Lake to look for the communal roost. At 4:15, there was nothing. Then I spotted the gulls, circling about a half-mile above the lake. There must have been 600 or more! They began to settle on the water at 4:37, opposite the promontory just south of the northeast dam. Viewing these birds will be a challenge in fading light. A Larimer County Parks Pass is required to hike into the picnic area on that promontory. Comment on the Vega Gull: I was happy to notice a Herring Gull-sized adult gull with a dark eye (not yellow), with bright pink legs, and with a mantle one shade darker than the other Herring and Ring-billed Gulls. I had first seen this bird back on Dec 11, but then I had not viewed it in good light and I did not get photos. This is a subspecies of Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) that breeds in northern Alaska and Siberia and winters in Asia. The Europeans consider Vega Gull (L. argentatus vegae) and American Herring Gull (L. argentatus smithsonianus) to be different species than the European Herring Gull (L. argentatus argenteus). Vega Gull is not yet recognized by the CBRC to occur in Colorado. For other photographed candidate Vega Gulls in Colorado, see the link above. There were three other Herring Gulls out there, all immatures, that had field marks more in line with Vega Gull than American Herring Gull. Vega Gulls are difficult to identify, and it may be that these photos will not be sufficient to convince an expert panel of the identity of these birds beyond a shadow of a doubt. Comments welcome, including alternative viewpoints on the identity of this adult Vega Gull. Its identity, as with the identity of all these gulls, is my opinion. Final comment on large gull identification: Identifying large white-headed gulls is a conundrum due to several reasons which should be considered when opening up this can of worms. The reasons include: 1. Hybridization between species occurs 2. Juveniles and older immatures are highly variable in appearance, and much overlap between species occurs 3. These species are prone to vagrancy 4. Arctic-breeding species are not well known by Colorado birders I’m not trying to scare you away from attempting gull identification. On the contrary, I am trying to encourage more birders to learn more about gull identification. Increased identification skills will lead to discovery of new gulls in Colorado, and contribute to discovery of new gull distribution trends in North America. Nick Komar Fort Collins CO -- 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.
