It turns out I still haven't seen Slaty-backed Gull in Ontario. Was never a big deal, since I had every intention of finding one. But with Kevin McLaughlin's recent find on the river (of an adult) and my intention of birding the river this weekend, it seemed inevitable that I wasn't going to add "Slaty-backed Gull" to my "self-found list" right off the bat.
Not a big deal right? No one could complain with seeing a Slaty-backed Gull... They're a pretty awesome bird.
But once again, things just end up all wonky. We birded the river for a few hours, including Adam Beck + above/below the falls -- and did the area justice. But there was no sign, all day, by anyone, of the Slaty-backed Gull (at least, as far as I know). What's the deal? Do the gull-gods have a sick sense of humour? Is Slaty-backed Gull going to become some sort of nemesis bird for me?
The answer is: All of the above. Not only did the "known" adult Slaty-backed Gull fail to show, but we had some additional drama. There I was, mid-afternoon amongst a healthy crowd of birders, when I spotted a pretty striking bird standing on the centre "island" near the control gates. Dark mantle, big white tertial crescent, big white "skirt", pink legs --- Slaty-backed Gull? Sure looks like one. But it also has extensive brown in the wing coverts and too much smudging. 3rd basic? (I didn't actually age it with confidence) - I was pretty shocked to be looking at a DIFFERENT Slaty-backed Gull.... Since lots of people were there looking, I decided to get everyone (esp. Jennifer) a look at the bird, so they could see exactly where I was talking about before I nailed the ID.
I called it out... "I think I have a different Slaty-backed Gull over here..." -- Jenn + Kyle had the first looks, before more people walked over (probably thinking I was crazy).. .In the meantime, I put the bird in Jenn's scope. Anoter viewer, and then, not 15-20 seconds after I called it out, I hear Jenn say "I don't think it's there anymore"..
Wait, what? I looked in the scope... The bird, which had been front and centre in the flock (100% in the open) was GONE... And to make a long story shorter, it was GONE GONE... Like we spent 2+ hours looking in the same area and there was absolutely NO SIGN of the bird. My only guess is it moved back into the flock and was totally concealed from view.
Is that crazy or what? One I felt really bad "letting go", but I'm also going back tomorrow, and the darn thing better show itself!
Did you have any luck with the "other" Slaty-back on Sunday? We had a bird Sunday afternoon that seemed somewhat similar. Pretty dark-mantled (darker than most LBBG), bright pink legs, but it didn't look like the adult SBGU that's been seen recently. It had dark smudging on the bill and may have been a 3rd/4th basic. Unfortunately, it was all the way over on the American side and we never got a good look at the wings. We felt this bird was probably a SBGU, but couldn't say for sure. Does this sound similar to your bird?
ReplyDeleteHey Gavin,
ReplyDeleteOver the Saturday and Sunday, we found about 4 different adult Great Black-backed X Herring and 2 adult Lesser BB X Herring hybrids above the falls, but nothing we felt was very hopeful for the adult Slaty-backed.
The "other" thing I had was a 3rd winter, with lots of signs of immaturity (brown on the wing coverts etc).
There's always next weekend I guess!
Brandon
We saw a couple hybrids too. The bird I talked about above was very dark-mantled, almost GBBG dark, but really too far to saw anything definitive I guess. Good luck next weekend!
ReplyDelete