Heard about another Franklin's Gull at Alum Creek Resevoir from Alex Eberts
while viewing the Willet at Deer Creek SP.  The gull had been seen the
previous evening at about 8:15 pm.  Since I was at least halfway to
Columbus, I decided to try for it.  Arrived at Alum Creek Beach at about
7:30 pm and observed a dark mantled, hooded small gull with head tucked
resting on the beach in a flock of Ring-billed Gulls.  This bird stayed
until Jeremy Dominguez and Sarah Lucas as well as Leslie Sours and Alex
Eberts arrived. At about 8:15 pm or later, another Franklin's Gull (FRGU)
arrived.

Some identification points.  The FRGUs had small, short, black/reddish
bills with little droop or downward curvature unlike the bill of Laughing
Gulls (LAGUs) which have longer bills with noticeable downward curvature.
In general, to my eye, for FRGU, the bill extension from the head is equal
to or maybe slightly longer than the distance from the bill base to the
back of the eye.  LAGU bill is noticeably longer than the the distance from
bill base to back of the LAGU's eye.  This is a general impression (jizz)
without using specific points on the bill base to make this comparison of
distances.

The legs of these FRGUs are relatively short and shorter than the longer
legs of LAGUs.  The legs of these FRGUs were blackish/reddish, not
completely either.

In flight, these FRGUs were short winged with more rounded wing tips than
LAGUs which are relatively long-winged with pointed wing tips.

When standing or roosting on the beach, these FRGUs appeared small and
compact but LAGUs would appear more slender and elongated thus larger.

The white eye arcs on the FRGUs were thick and appeared connected in the
back and wide apart in front of the eyes unlike for LAGUs which have
thinner white eye arcs, which are usually (but not always) unconnected in
the back of eye and usually equidistant apart in front of and behind the
eye.

The tail of the first FRGU was studied closely with scope views from behind
as the bird roosted on the beach and was gray on the upper surface with
white outer edges and a white fringe on the end.  This gray tail is
maintained in adult FRGU (at least the tail center).  I did not observe a
white rump versus the gray tail for FRGU in flight.  LAGU in comparable
plumage has white tail and rump.

Neither FRGU had fully developed white between the black primaries and gray
mantle on the upper surface of the wings as in adult FRGU.  While in
flight, it was difficult to see white between the black primaries and gray
mantle for these FRGUs.  Before I left at about 9:00 pm, Leslie Sours
showed me a flight photo which showed an isolated (in white) black spot on
primary 5 or 6 (not an exact count).  This black spot is isolated by white
on the primary tip and the white between this primary and gray mantle.  If
I recall correctly, Leslie's  photo shows white tipped black primaries
without white between the outer three or four primaries (10,9,8 and maybe
7) and the gray mantle.  As stated previously by Kenn Kaufman on FB, this
indicates 2nd winter plumage.  My only reference showing this plumage is
Olson and Larson, "Gulls of North America, Europe and Asia," plate 74, page
514.

The second FRGU showed pink blush on the breast.

These FRGUs appear to be in molt to adult plumage.

Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me last night.

Thanks for listening.
Jay

Jay G Lehman Cincinnati, OH
Sent from DROID RAZR HD

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