OHIO-BIRDS Archives

April 2012

OHIO-BIRDS@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:15:56 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (55 lines)
Just spent an hour and a half up at Hoover Reservoir near the dam on
this sunny afternoon. During that time maybe sixty gulls cycled in and
out, half floating in the opening to the lagoon and half loafing out on
the docks.  After half an hour I finally saw a good candidate for the
California gull reported yesterday, standing on the floating dock.
        *None* of the other gulls seen (herring and ring-billed) was in full
alternate plumage. This one stood out at ~200 yards--even with the naked
eye--as largely snow-white; the rest of the gulls were dingy by
comparison.  This bird was kind of lanky at both ends, with seemingly
longer narrower folded wings and bill.  Sure enough, when I got it into
the scope a lot fell into place: clear adjacent patches of red and black
(the black distally) on the lower mandible, with the crown, throat, nape
all immaculate white, and the apparently dark eye. The legs were of an
indeterminate color, pinkish on the feet, but a pea-soupy gray-green on
the legs, unlike nearby herring gulls. It stood apart from the other
gulls the whole time, and relocated a bit only once in an hour and half,
till 2:45. Its mantle looked darkish to me under those conditions, but
there was no other fully adult gull with which to compare it. Bright
sunlight can accentuate dark/light contrasts.
        For the last half-hour of my observations I ambled down and walked out
to the end of an adjacent dock, where I had a point-blank view from
maybe 50 yards in a 60X Nikon scope. This bird was the only one in
spotless high breeding feathers, unobscured. The black patch on the bill
was larger than the red one (odd); very few other N Am gulls, such as
black-tailed and Belcher's, have a tricolored bill as adults. The leg
color was less pink and more yellow-gray than the herring gull standing
next to it. In this light, the mantle looked perhaps a bit darker gray
than we're used to seeing here in ring-bills and herrings, but nowhere
near as dark as a lesser black-backed. There was no other gull nearby in
the same state of molt, and this in itself suggested it might be
something unusual, as different species from different regions often
have different molt schedules. But when I focused on the eye, the iris
was clearly cream-colored, with a black pupil. This seemed to be a killer.
        The light-colored iris, and the lack of any other adult gull to compare
directly with its mantle shade in the given light conditions, make me
doubt a firm ID for California for this bird. I heard others had
reported a California earlier up the reservoir a couple of miles today,
but unless I am mistaken about the ID criterion, this promising bird
didn't pass the test, but  I can't explain the discrepancies. The fact
that the other seekers today have not publicly called this a California
is another incentive for me to sit this one out...
Bill Whan
Columbus


______________________________________________________________________

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]

ATOM RSS1 RSS2