I birded the Stevenson Road compost piles in Ithaca this morning, which were quite good. There were two Lesser Black-backed Gulls, but the most interesting bird was a gull that appeared intermediate between Ring-billed and Herring Gull. I tried to turn into an odd American Herring Gull (which it was more similar to in structure and size). There are a couple photos in the eBird checklist below, so it may be useful to look at those when reading the following notes. Compared to a Herring Gull, note the relatively long-winged appearance, leg color similar to Ring-billed Gull, small bill with well defined black ring (usually not shown by HERG quite this advanced in adult-like upperparts coloration). Head pattern recalls Ring-billed Gull but with HERG-like smudging on nape and particularly underpart; also note the greater wing coverts have some brownish coloration most similar to HERG. There was no overlap in size with any Herring Gull or Ring-billed Gull there (intermediate in size; much larger than all RBGU but slightly smaller than the smallest Herring Gulls). The images look more RBGU like, but with brown on greater coverts, a bit more brown smudging on breast than is typical, and fairly large black spot on tertial.
I am not aware of any records of Herring x Ring-billed Gulls. Andy Guthrie sent this image of Ring-billed x Lesser Black-backed from Spain, which, as he notes, looks similar to this bird but differs in how one would expect Ring-billed x Herring versus Ring-billed x Lesser Black-backed would appear. Anyway, interesting bird. Complete checklist and photos here: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15501748 After finishing up shopping at Wegmans I thought that the canal on the west side looked as if it may harbor some sparrows or lingering birds. Walking south into the land of big box stores revealed a YELLOW WARBLER. It has a bad wing, so perhaps it will be around until it gets harder to find food. Complete checklist and photos here: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15502776 Chris Wood eBird & Neotropical Birds Project Leader Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York http://ebird.org http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
