I just wanted to clarify a couple of things from my previous email of my
sighting yesterday of the Black-legged Kittiwake. I never mentioned that the
bird was a 1st winter bird. This is evident from the description but I just
wanted to clarify. Secondly, the bird did not have black wing edges on the tips
of its primary and secondary feathers, these edges were white. What I meant was
that from the car I could see black running the length of the wing instead of
being predominantly on the wing tip as most gulls in the area would have. A
Little Gull can have a similar black collar and thick black M pattern but this
bird did not show black on its cap and was definitely bigger than a Little
Gull. Bonaparte's Gulls can show a slight M pattern but have the dark wing
edges and do not have the thick black nape. I have also seen plenty of
Bonaparte's Gulls and this did not look anything like them. The only other
confusion would come from a Sabine's Gull. I was very careful to note the fact
that the mantle was gray because I knew that a juvenile Sabine's Gull would be
more brownish. An adult Sabine's Gull does not have black on the end of its
tail as this bird did and also does not have the thick black collar on its
nape. I know whenever someone who is not well known to the birding community
and posts a very rare bird the sighting will be questioned unless others see it
or there are photographs, which I do understand. The identification was
actually not that difficult for me and I have no doubt that the bird I saw was
a Black-legged Kittiwake but I have no idea what the criteria is for the MOU
records committee to accept the record. I will take no offense if it is not
accepted because I'm sure they do have to be very careful not to document birds
without evidence. I just feel lucky that I was in the right place at the right
time to see an amazing bird. That is why I am so passionate about birding and
it has still not gotten at all boring after six years.
Jason Caddy, Minneapolis [email protected]
----
Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net
Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
