Friday, January 6, 2017

Two funky checkered Herring Gulls


Sorry not sorry for the "cell phone through binoculars" photos... 

Variation in first year Herring Gulls is reasonably well known, and the two birds here aren't particularly unusual... 

They are both "northern" types (meaning they're holding juvenile plumage later than most)... And they're both at the pale-end (extreme?) of our NA Herring Gulls... 

The strangest part (to me) was that they look very SIMILAR in their paleness, and they were TOGETHER on a beach with only a limited number of Herring Gulls present... 

Makes me (really) wonder where these suckers were born!! (I'm guessing northern or eastern Baffin Island)... Who has a motus tag?!?!



bird 1




bird 2


bird 2 (back), bird 1 (front)


(bird two, back, wings up) (bird one, front) 


(you get it)


IF you don't like young Herring Gulls - here's a few ebird checklists with record photos of Franklin's Gulls instead: 










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