The Brooklyn Bridge Park gull roost is, as usual, providing good entertainment for all wholehearted and would-be larophiles this winter.
Yesterday evening, among the 3,000 or so Larus gulls roosting at the park, there was a beautiful, crisply plumaged juvenile Iceland Gull (Kumlien's-type), as well as a subadult Lesser Black-backed Gull. Despite their increasing numbers in the region, and their relative local abundance compared to Iceland Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull has actually proven to be the less common of the two at this site through the last few years of intermittent-to-semi-regular gull roost watching. Photos of these two individuals here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S99612810 Today, it hosted what is undoubtedly the rarest gull that has yet to be detected at the site. Early in the evening, Jer Thorp and Mike Yuan found an adult Iceland Gull on the Pier 1 pilings, and then a bit later, as light was truly failing, they found an adult* Black-headed Gull x Ring-billed Gull hybrid!* I came over from the marina, where I was looking at Ring-billed Gulls, and much to my delight we were able to re-find the bird. It was (and presumably still is) roosting on one of the pilings about midway between the north and south ends of the pilings. Photos and video of the bird, taken under poor light conditions, can be seen here: Mike Yuan & Jer Thorp's checklists: https://ebird.org/checklist/S99659899 My checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S99658765 This site, while sometimes hosting single uncommon gulls for much of a winter, has lots and lots of turnover from day-to-day, providing a "you never know what you'll see" feel to each evening's roost watching. This was evidenced by today's absence of yesterday's Iceland and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, and the appearance of a new adult Iceland Gull today, as well as a change in the numbers of Great Black-backed Gulls using the pilings from the single digits yesterday, to 35-40 this evening, and a reduction in the Ring-billed Gull count by almost a thousand birds between last night and tonight. For those wishing to gull at the site, there are two night roosts: the Pier 1 pilings, which tend to host a much higher percentage of larger gulls (Herring and Great Black-backed), as well as the marina between Piers 3 & 5, which usually features between 1,500-4,500 Ring-billed Gulls, depending on date, weather conditions, tides, and surely many other things we do not yet fully understand. The gulls begin to arrive en masse right around sunset, with many continuing to pile in after official sunset. A scope is particularly helpful once night falls, and the ambient light at the park makes some gull identification feasible well beyond nightfall. The park is accessible by public transportation, and very limited metered parking is available along Furman Street, with more expensive parking garages also very close to the park. There are more parking options available in Brooklyn Heights or near Atlantic Avenue, a short walk away from the park. Good gulling! Doug Gochfeld. Brooklyn, NY. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --