A presumed Mew gull looking bird was observed today at 8:00 and again at 1:30pm at Sir Adam Beck Generating station lookout. It was initially seen on the rocks below the hydro lines at 8:00 just south of Sir Adam Beck and then later in flight towards the north of the lookout. I passed it off initially as just another gull that didn’t look right until I saw it again in the p.m. The bird was ring-billed sized but had an obviously darker mantle than neighboring Ring-bills, had yellowy-green legs but had a relatively long bill (it should be shorter than Ring-bills, but was hard to judge from a distance) with an indistinct dusky bill band. It was a bill band different to any Ring-billed Gull I have ever seen in that it was very faded , dusky and incomplete looking. The neck and face were very smudged and a dirty looking gray-brown colour and there was an obvious tertial crescent and smaller scapular crescent. It also looked rather long winged at rest and in flight. In flight the wing showed two very large mirrors on P9 and P10 , very noticeable from afar and in head-on flight and showed a somewhat wide white trailing edge to the secondaries and inner primaries. I don’t know if what I saw was a Mew Gull, hopefully others will get on the bird and make a positive i.d. At Queenston from the church lookout at the end of Highlander Street, I found 2 Little gulls as well. I also got one possibly two Fish Crows (same bird twice ?) at the Golf Course at the end of Bowen Rd but aparently just missed the Black-headed Gull. Mark Ansell 87 Marilake Drive Scarborough,Ontario M1S 1V8 [email protected] 416-298-4652 _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
