Newfoundland - Jan 21st

Jan 21st - pictures taken today - 753
Pictures taken since Jan 9 - 7885

 - Lesser Black-backed Gull

 - Glaucous Gull

 - Herring Gull

Well that covers the first 3+ hours of my day. With a steady snow falling, I went to the "water hole" at Quidi Vidi lake in hopes of photographing the darn Yellow-legged Gull. It was snowing steady, and blowing pretty good as well. There were 2 Bald Eagles eating a dead gull on the ice, but the other gulls continued to visit the water. Several Lesser Black-backs and several hybrids made visits (no Great Black-backed X Glaucous though, where are they?), but neither of the "rarities" showed themselves - until the Yellow-legged Gull finally stopped by for 30-45 seconds (a quick drink before leaving):

 - Yellow-legged Gull

Then another 1 to 1.5 hours passed without much excitement. I continued to photograph the various gulls arriving to drink and bathe. Finally the Yellow-legged Gull came back for 1-2 minutes for a splash around the water, which allowed for more pictures. It then flew a fair distance away to do a few seconds of preening (where I got the below image), before going back and disappearing into the group. Another hour or more passed before I noticed the Slaty-backed Gull had appeared to bathe. It stayed near the back of the pool, and was surrounded by other gulls - before quickly flying out onto the ice to finish preening. It wasn't very cooperative for pictures today, but I can't complain after the shots I got 2 days ago!

 - Yellow-legged Gull

So yeah! 6.5 hours of sitting in the snow for 3-4 mins of Yellow-legged Gull, and a minute of Slaty-backed Gull. Actually it was pretty fun. I brought 2 loaves of bread, and would feed the tame gulls/ducks/pigeons when I needed something to entertain me. The adult Common Gull was around as well, and ate some bread! (4th day in a row of feeding it, I think I like it). If the roads are clear in the morning, I might be going in search of non-gulls again! A Greenland Hoary Redpoll is also coming to a feeder well south of St. John's. If it sticks around, it will be a big target for photography as well!



Fun fact of the day: The Great Black-backed Gulls here are sissies. All day, lots of fighting and posturing by the gulls at the small water hole. The Great Black-backs here take a lot of guff from the Glaucous Gulls. That sure isn't the case back home. Let loose a few "Lake Ontario" Great Black-backs around here, and these birds wouldn't know what hit them. The winter flock of Tufted Ducks would be gone in days! I didn't see a single Great Black-back grab another gull by the back of the head, and hold it under water - all day! Disappointing.


 - ahhh the good old days back home...