I stopped at the Cornell compost facility on Stevenson Rd outside Ithaca this morning before work. The place was packed with Herring Gulls and American Crows, about 1000 of each. The first unusual gull I found was my target bird, a first-year THAYER'S GULL. I had missed the one seen a couple of weeks ago, and wanted it to return. I don't think it did, as this individual was darker than the photos of the other bird, but it looked good for Thayer's, with dark, but not black wingtips, and a smoothly dark face. The tail was dark, the primaries were light below (but not pure white; the tips had dusky markings) with reduced dark above primarily on the outer vane of the feathers. The pale inner primary window (the Herring Gull mark) extended into the middle of the secondaries.
I have images at https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/mKs0_N1cs-mKNmcmohBPJNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink, and following. Confusing the issue was a dark first-year ICELAND GULL that landed near the Thayer's and may have flushed it. Jay was directing me to the Thayer's he had refound and I locked on the Iceland. Then we couldn't tell which bird where. Fortunately I got a few photos that included both birds. One is here: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/hqQHC6slMS2VkSp4YiyRW9MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink. Side-by-side the comparison of the wings is interesting. The Iceland's are distinctly paler and differently marked. Also present was the 3rd year GLAUCOUS GULL, and the Herring X Great Black-backed Gull hybrid, both of which have been seen recently. Perhaps more, too. There were a lot of gulls. My ebird checklist, with photos is here: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S21564731. Kevin Kevin J. McGowan Project Manager Distance Learning in Bird Biology Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 k...@cornell.edu<mailto:k...@cornell.edu> 607-254-2452 Do you know about our other distance-learning opportunities? Visit http://www.birds.cornell.edu/courses<http://cornell.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b35ddb671faf4a16c0ce32406&id=19023cad4e&e=d3c0712a98> and learn about our comprehensive Home Study Course in Bird Biology, our online course Investigating Behavior: Courtship and Rivalry in Birds<http://cornell.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b35ddb671faf4a16c0ce32406&id=d69183921c&e=d3c0712a98>, our Be A Better Birder tutorials<http://cornell.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b35ddb671faf4a16c0ce32406&id=9969512772&e=d3c0712a98>, and our series of webinars<http://cornell.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b35ddb671faf4a16c0ce32406&id=946e880490&e=d3c0712a98>. Purchase the webinars here<http://cornell.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b35ddb671faf4a16c0ce32406&id=d5d44c79f0&e=d3c0712a98>. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
