Gulls at Lorain were great today.  It was probably the best day I have had in a few years for winter gulls.  At one time in the morning an eagle went over and the sky was just packed with gulls.  I estimated 25-30,000 birds.  There were a lot of large gulls sitting on the ice east of the sewage treatment plant in the morning.  I spent more time along the river watching as a lot of the good gulls were pretty close.  I had a couple Thayer's so close i couldn't focus on them.  There were proabably 500 Bonaparte's this morning.  We could not find anything of note with them.  The large numbers seemed to disappear by late afternoon. Below is a brief synopsis of the good gulls.  I will probably post some photos tomorrow after I have a chance to go over them. Glaucous gull- two east of the sewage treatment plant, an adult and a first cycle bird Kumlien's Iceland gull- three birds along the river, 1 second cycle, 1 third cycle, and one very white wing-tipped adult Thayer's gull- at least eight birds.  I saw five adults at one time and had a different bird earlier that was not amongst them making 6 adults, 1 first cycle, and 1 third cycle. This was one of the higher Thayer's gulls totals I have had in some time.  The overcast conditions wreally made them stand out.  The adults are slightly darker backed than the herring adults and I was able to pick them out without binoculars. Lesser Black-backed gull- at least 9 birds.  I saw 6 adults at one time, 1 1st cycle, 1 2nd cycle and 1 3rd cycle. California gull- 1 adult present for at least 45 minutes.  It was not relocated in the afternoon Hybrids-  All were adults and all three had mantles that were darker than a herring, but lighter than an adult lesser black-backedHybrid 1- probably a great black-backed x herring.  It was larger than a herring.  The head was very white with just a few scattered streaks and the legs were pinkish.  Hybrid 2- possibly a lesser black-backed x herring.  It was herring gull sized.  The head had a bit of streaking around the eye.  Legs were yellow.  I did get decent photos of this one.Hybrid 3- unknown.  It had the same mantle shade as the other two.  The head was very heavily streaked.  The bird was lying down so the leg color was not visible.  It was herring gull sized.  I'm not used to seeing hybrids with that much head streaking.  Leg color would have helped. John Pogacnik                                      
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