Reviewing photographs taken at the south end of Horsetooth Reservoir, I now count about 10 (!) Thayer’s Gulls, ranging from pale to dark. Some representative shots are posted at http://www.pbase.com/quetzal/horsetooth11112011. Before I pored through hundreds of photos, I had assumed that the darker birds were young Herring Gulls. Now I think they were all Thayer’s Gulls. My park pass ($7) is valid for 24 hrs, so I will be back in a few hours to take more photos.
Happy gull watching (what red-blooded American doesn’t like gulls? ). Nick Komar, Fort Collins ------------------------------------------------- Here is the update I promised. Timnath Reservoir-- Hundreds of gulls, but unfortunately the distance of most of these from the west Parking Area was too large for careful study. I believe I saw Lesser Black-backed Gulls aged adult, 3rd cycle, and 2nd cycle. One pale 1st cycle gull was a candidate Iceland/Thayer’s but it didn’t fit perfectly into any one category. A very odd gull briefly present with the pale gull on the northwest shoreline was an odd combination of a large dark-backed gull and a pale gull, aged 2nd cycle, or delayed 3rd cycle (bill was 3rd cycle, but underparts still had brown on the belly). This was probably a hybrid of sorts, from the Pacific Northwest. Horsetooth Reservoir-- Close to a thousand gulls, half on shore at the south end ($7 entrance fee), and half sprinkled across miles of reservoir. At the south end I counted four or five 1st-cycle Thayer’s Gulls of various shades, and two adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
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