Hi Birders,

Today at 6:00pm, I stopped at Hoover Reservoir for a brief check on the gulls.  I was only hoping to see the Lesser Black-backed Gulls (LBBG) that had been reported, as I needed this species for Franklin county.  A decent number of gulls were sitting on the docks when I arrived, mostly Ring-billed Gulls (RBGU).  I scanned with my binoculars and landed on a darker-mantled bird, but was curious, because it was barely bigger than the RBGUs.  I put my scope on the bird, and had great, clear looks at a breeding adult California Gull!  After studying the bird very closely, and triple-checking my field guide, I called Paul Hurtado and described the bird while I was looking at it:

Sitting in between two 2nd-cycle RBGUs, and it was barely bigger in size, but slightly taller at the head, and noticeably longer.  An adult Herring Gull (HERG) was sitting several feet to the right, and it was not close to this birds size.  The mantle was darker than the adult RBGUs and HERGs in the area, but not as dark as what I was expecting to see in the LBBGs.  I described it to Paul as a very clean, slate-gray.  The white tertials then gave way to the black-tipped primaries, with white tips mixed among them.  The gull had a perfectly clean head and neck, with a dark eye.  When the sun was right, the eye would appear to have a reddish tint, that I attribute to the red orbital ring adults show in this species.  The bill was another flag to me, as it clearly showed clean black and red.  The black was, and the red sat just behind the black ring on the lower mandible.  Looking at the field guide, I tried to see the red gape behind the bill, but the bird was too far (I could see the gape, just not the color).  The legs were greenish-yellow, noticeably paler/greener than the adjacent RBGUs.  I got off the phone with Paul, as he made his way to Hoover.  During the 15 minutes that it took him to get there, a fishing boat came into the docks and flushed all of the gulls.  Lots of people had also arrived at the park next to the dock, and several of them were feeding Canada Geese.  I tried to track the CAGU in flight, but lost it among the ~100 gulls.  Many RBGUs landed with the geese and began feeding on the bread.  As this happened, a new flock of gulls came into the docks from further north.  This flock was more HERG than RBGU, and included two 3rd cycle Lesser Black-backed Gulls.  Paul arrived at about this time, and also saw both of these birds.  They confirmed the CAGU ID for me with noticeably darker mantles, much yellower legs, brown flecking on the head and neck, and a much larger overall size.  We looked for about 30 minutes, but could not relocate the CAGU.  We tried a few more spots up the reservoir, but gulls were moving all over the place, and we had no luck.  Soon after, Dave Slager and Jason Simonis arrived at the dam.  The LBBGs were now gone, too!  As I was leaving (now 2 hours late to dinner at my mothers house), more gulls were moving in and out of the area.  The point is, the gulls are moving around constantly!  I am 100% sure on the ID of this California Gull, and it is very likely still on Hoover Reservoir somewhere.  Unfortunately, Hoover is a very long reservoir, but I really encourage people to get out and check the gulls from the Galena boardwalk down to the dam tomorrow.  Be patient; within twenty minutes, the California Gull came and went, and two Lesser Black-backed Gulls came and went from the same location.  Apparently, California Gulls are somewhat notorious for being a '15 minute bird'.

I would welcome any questions or comments (on or off list, to your judgement) about my ID of this bird, as I know there are many of you with more experience of this species, and gulls in general.

Good Birding,
Alex Hughes

PS Never go anywhere without your camera.

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