[CT Birds] Fw: Help with Gull ID- MORE LBBGs!

[Clay Taylor]

Hi all -

Tim sent me this e-mail (below) yesterday, and I confirmed the ID of the LBBG. Nice shots - especially the flight shot!

Today I sent Dennis Varza photos of the 6 LBBGs I saw on Monday, and I decided to check which of those birds was Tim's.    Guess what?   It's a totally different bird than any of the ones from Monday!   How cool is that? 

Tim's bird has an adult mantle coming in with very messy mixed wing coverts that are still in molt, but its bill is very clean - no extra smudges of black away from the band.   All the "messy winged" birds I saw on Monday had even messier bills.

OK, so now I was intrigued to check and see if there were any OTHER new individuals.

My LBBG chronology on Monday was -

Bird # 1 - 11:49am West Beach Parking Lot, then flew to the grassy area to the west after a car disturbance.   Had some older adult wing coverts, small spotting on head around eyes, messy bill.
Bird # 2 - 12:06 pm feeding in grasses by the "crossbill pines" - better wings with a few retained adult coverts, darkish bill, 
Bird # 3 - 12:3 pm standing at Meig's Pt. Parking lot - lots of imm coverts, darkish bill, reduced streaking on head and neck.
The Gang of Five - starting at 1:22:16 pm
1st - 1 photo - mostly clean wings, marks just behind base of bill from new cheek feathers, dark "slash" mark above nostril - Make this # 4
2nd - 2 photos - heavily streaked head, messy wings definitely # 5
3rd - 2 photos - standing to right of 2nd bird with head tucked in.  Wing molt resembled Bird #1.   Did not get a photo of the bill, but small speckles on face did not match Bird # 1, so this is # 6
4th - 2 photos - mostly clean wings, some retained older adult coverts, head was turned in the photo so I couldn't see the bill very well.   However, the pattern of retained adult coverts is identical with Bird # 2 - he just moved over from the grass to roost with his buddies.
5th - 3 photos - taken at 1:23:04 Initially walking, then stopped by 4th bird. This bird looked very much like the 1st bird in the group, and for a while I began wondering if I shot it twice by mistake.   However, the markings on the cheek were not as dark, and the bill had a different pattern.  That makes Bird # 7!

That means that Bird # 1 never returned to the West Beach Parking Lot, and I actually saw 7 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.   Holy Cow.
And Tim's bird on Tuesday was totally unlike any from the day before, so that makes EIGHT!

I keep saying I have to get a Flickr account, so maybe this will get me to finally do that, but in the meantime, if you want to see my Magnificent 7, drop me a line and I'll send reduced images.

Clay Taylor
Moodus, CT
ctaylor at att.net 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Tim Antanaitis 
To: Clay Taylor 
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 10:09 PM
Subject: Help with Gull ID


Hi Clay,

I went to Hammo today and found what I believe is a second summer Lesser
Black-backed Gull (only one) after looking at some pictures online.  Do you agree?
Identifying gulls is my birding weakness.    I've posted some pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/TimAntanaitis/LesserBlackBackedGull
There's also a picture of a male Boat-tailed Grackle that was on the center trail
of Willard's Island.  These are both new Hammo birds for me, but I'm not 100% sure
about the LBBG.  Any help with this ID would be greatly appreciated.

-Tim Antanaitis



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