Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Gull page update pics!


Below is some pre-written garbage that I did weeks ago! (Are you excited?)

I can add some birding news - parents and I had an Eastern Phoebe in Burlington (near woodland cemetery  in the afternoon of Dec 24th!!

Was pretty cool to see. Picking bugs off a house. Landed on a hammock... sa-weet!

Anyways here's the junk:

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Way back in the day (Oct 15th, 2012) my Dad and I spent the afternoon searching Lake Erie for goodies (remember that 50 days of rare thing?)... What did we get? Some ugly gulls...




Seemed a bit odd with a cold slaty mantle tone (I often think of them as a warmer gray than other dark mantled gulls) 




First up is 4 photos of a Lesser Black-backed Gull!! I think something funny goes on with LBBGs, because their ages always seem kinda messed up to me... This bird seems really advanced for a 3rd basic... Maybe it's actually a 4th basic that's well behind in plumage advancement??  Either way, I photographed it, and put the pics on the Lesser Black-backed Gull page...

Also - Seemed a bit odd with a cold slaty mantle tone (I often think of them as a warmer gray than other dark mantled gulls) 

Anyways here's the page:

https://picasaweb.google.com/117329578255897846071/LesserBlackBackedGulls#


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I really thought we had something good this time, as the mantle shade in teh field was spot-on for California Gull... But instead it raised its ugly head to reveal a 3rd winter Herring X Lesser Black-backed hybrid... 

(the head/bill pattern is what gives it away as a LBBG hybrid)... 




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Who knew, that when I was getting tired of ugly gulls back in Mid October that Superstorm Sandy was only 2 weeks away !!!




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