Dan Sanders and I were successful in finding target birds on Sunday,
02/11/07.  I wanted to see the Harris' Sparrow in Homes County, so we
started the day at the Miller's near Walnut Creek.  The Harris's Sparrow
put on a good show while we were there from about 10:30 to 11:30 am.  It
was first found sitting in the trees to the east of the barn along the
bank near the creek and then it flew into the grape vine and then to the
ground feeder.  I was able to get some digiscoped photos, but have not yet
downloaded them to look at quality.  They look OK on the camera.  We
arrived at E 72nd Street at about 1:00 pm.  Soon thereafter, I found an
adult Thayer's Gull. This bird was hanging in the eastern part of the
flock away from the bridge, directly out from the walkways down to the
water.   We could see the dark eye the distinctive primary pattern, in
general,the alternating dark on the outer web and white on the inner web,
when it flew, the more rounded head than Herring Gull and the slightly
smaller bill than Herring Gull.  Later Ray Hannikman pointed out an
immature/first year Thayer's Gull from near the bridge.  Later, Dan also
found another adult Thayer's Gull.  The dark on the primaries of this bird
were not quite as dark as on the first bird.  Ray pointed out a first
year/immature Lesser Black-backed Gull, and then later at about 3:00 pm, I
found a third winter Lesser Black-backed Gull sitting on the water.  No
other white winged or rarer gulls until 3:40 pm, when I found an adult
Glaucous Gull sitting on the water near the rocks and the concrete walkway
east of the bridge.  This bird stayed for about 10 minutes occasionally
flying around  when the gull flock flushed from the hot waters.  I took a
few digiscoped shots, but the bird was so close that it was difficult to
keep the whole bird in the photo.  Just before 4:00 pm, Dan found a flying
white-winged gull, initially thought to be a Glaucous.  However, it really
was an Iceland (Kumlein's) Gull in very nearly if not complete adult
plumage.  The wider wings (than Glaucous) of the Iceland Gull made it look
bigger in flight, but when it landed near the numerous Herring Gulls, it
was clearly smaller than the Herring gulls with a smaller, not as thick
bill.  In flight we could see the very faint, grayish markings on the
primaries that made it a Kumlein's.  Just as we were about to back out of
our parking space, we saw another Glaucous Gull, fly into the hot waters
area from the east.  It looked like a second winter Glaucous to me.  We
left shortly after 4:00 pm, having seen eight species of gulls in about
three hours:  Herring Gull , Ring-billed Gull, Bonaparte's Gull, Great
Black-backed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Thayer's Gull, Glaucous Gull,
and Iceland (Kumlein's) Gull.  Dan and I planned to stay a while at E.
72nd Street.  In our collective experience, arriving at any lakefront
winter gull site from a distance (Columbus for Dan and Cincinnati for me),
requires patience and staying power to see the different species of gulls.
 So, we dressed for the cold weather and the wind that fortunately, this
time, was not as strong as is typical at E. 72nd Street.  I found it
difficult to take photographs, because batteries run down very quickly in
the cold.  So, I kept my smaller digital camera inside my coat to keep the
batteries warm!  At E. 72nd Street on Sunday, there were large flocks of
gulls sitting out on the ice, and there was frequent turn-over of the
birds feeding in the hot  waters.  So, staying there for a few hours
allows one enough time to let all the gulls in the area to come by the hot
waters area for clower inspection.
Jay

Jay G. Lehman
Cincinnati, OH
[log in to unmask]

______________________________________________________________________

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]