Yesterday gull watching on the St. Clair River was fantastic with 8 species observed without any small gulls. First my apologies for the late posting on this bird. I wanted to research hybrid options before posting as I did not see the classic ‘string of pearls’ or bright pink legs of this bird, but had excellent direct comparisons with adjacent herring and great black-backed gulls for several minutes in bright overcast conditions. I firmly believe now that it was an adult winter SLATY-BACKED GULL. I put a description on ebird if you want to see more details. If you are looking for the bird it is a full adult, with a mantle colour intermediate between LBBG and GBBG. Next to a herring gull it is clearly larger and very bulky and block headed. It has a strong hood, with the classic dark eye patch and prominent pale eye, with broad white tertials. Most of the gulls seen were loafing on ice floes and slowly drifting down the river. Even if this bird is no longer on the St. Clair River, there is a good chance it could turn up somewhere on Lake St. Clair, or the Detroit River (Peche Island or Belle Isle). It is very striking! Yesterday I birded the St. Clair River from Port Huron/Sarnia all the way to Marine City/ Sombra. Unlike the day before the river was full of ice floes and large numbers of gulls were riding on the floes, all along the river. I observed about 2500 gulls in total along the river including 15 GLAUCOUS (8 adults, 6 first yr, 1 second yr), 78 GREAT BLACK-BACKED (60% or more adults), 1 THAYERS (first yr), 3 ICELAND (2 adults, 1 first), 2 Iceland/Thayers type – first yrs sitting on ice where more detail could not be seen, and 3 LESSER BLACK-BACKED (2 adults, 1 first yr). If anyone finds this bird, I would really appreciate an email. Also please get photos. Good birding! Tom
G. Tom Hince P.O. Box 281 Wheatley, ON N0P2P0 Canada [email protected] 586 839-7482 _______________________________________________ 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/
