Thanks to everyone for the advice and good wishes on my Black-tailed Gull run yesterday! As anyone who was up there knows, it was a very rainy day with poor visibility. I got to Lake Shore Park (pt B) at roughly 11:30 am but hardly any gulls  of any kind were present, so I drove around to the other points without any luck. At about 12:30 I went back to Lake Shore Park and a flock of gulls was straggling in and landing around and on the industrial buildings. Scanning with binoculars, I saw one individual that at first glance looked like an adult Ring-billed Gull--basically same shape and size and mantle color--and then when it turned I saw what looked like a dark band across the lower half of the tail. I only saw it for a few seconds before it disappeared behind the buildings and although I spent the rest of the afternoon looking for it I didn't have any luck.
So I guess my question is--I am NOT AT ALL an expert on gull ID, the visibility was very poor, and I was using 8x binoculars rather than a spotting scope, so I don't feel nearly confident enough to check the little Black-tailed Gull box on my life list. But what do you guys think? Sound like it was the BTG, or not? And how good of a look do you like to get before you 'count' something on your state or life list?


Anna W
 

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]