Yesterday, Jeff Eddy and I hit the Duluth Canal to check out the gulls and other birds in the cold north wind blowing off Superior. We were happy to get Glaucous and Iceland (Thayer's) Gulls, but then a darker-gray-backed bird showed up. I've posted photos to my eBird report and the Minnesota Birding Facebook group. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S51428572
(Sorry if this is a repeat: I initially sent this to [email protected], which didn't seem to go through.) The most likely species for the location is the Great Black-backed Gull, but there were several things about this individual that made us question that ID. Garrett Wee tagged Amar Ayyash on FB, who replied, "Looks like a great Slaty candidate!" I'll post my full FB account below. So, for any of you up in the Duluth area willing to venture out in today's conditions, this might be a chaseable bird! Also happy to take ID suggestions here or privately. Dale Trexel Mendota Heights, MN My original FB post: Gull ID request. Yesterday we were at the Duluth canal park and spotted this individual out on the far wall. It's clearly darker than the Herring Gulls nearby, but not as dark as I'd expect for a Great Black-backed Gull. GBBG is most likely, but I'm wondering what the chances are we found something even more unlikely, like a Slaty-backed Gull. You can barely see it in the photos I got, but it's mostly adult with some juvenile characteristics: head is very streaky, bill is light (I thought I saw a slight pink cast in quick view that I got) with a dark tip, and in photos there seems to be just a hint of brownish mottling at the edge of the gray regions. I presume this is a 3rd winter bird. The legs are pink, but not distinctly more pink than the HEGU nearby (rules out Lesser Black-backed Gull). The white band on the trailing edge of the wing is pretty bold and even all the way across, especially compared to the HEGU nearby, but is it enough for SLGU? Sibley has 3rd winter GBBG heads much more white than this individual, which appears closer to his illustration of 3rd winter SLGU, but I have no idea how variable that trait can be. Size-wise it's not as dramatically bigger than the HEGU as I'd expect for a GBBG. We observed the bird just this one time, just before noon. I digiscoped these images before something sent the whole flock into the air, and we never relocated it. We even popped over to Grandma's for lunch and to warm up before heading back out for one last look, without success. Someone came out with bread to draw the gulls in for photos, causing too much chaos, so we headed out. We're back home now, so those of you still up in the Duluth area may want to keep an eye out for this bird! ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
