Dear Tweeters,

An emergency trip to Florida found me briefly on
Flagler Beach. Flagler is between Daytona and Saint
Augustine, on the Atlantic side. Most of the gulls
were Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls, but one puzzled
me.

It was a big gull with a big bill. Unfortunately, the
bird was alone, so I could not compare its size to
that of other gulls--but the bird and its bill looked
very big after I had been looking at Laughing Gulls.

This was the bird's first winter, or really the
beginning of the spring following first winter. There
were no grey feathers on the mantle yet.

The bill was nearly all black, with pronounced
gonydeal angle. Near the tip of the lower mandible of
the bill was a small, pointy area of yellowish horn
color. The bill lacked the pale basal area expected in
American Herring Gulls of this age.

The legs were greyish with a pink tinge. The tail was
darkish brown, with noticeably lighter uppertail
coverts. The breast was whiter than the belly. The eye
seemed dark. When standing on the beach, the bird
showed a pale arc on the greater coverts, contrasting
with the darker brown of the rest of the wing.

That was about all I could see on the bird--I had to
leave. My first thought was that it "had to be a
Herring Gull." I am very rusty on Herring Gulls,
though, and have never birded Florida in the winter to
see what the gulls there look like at that season.

Looking through all my bird books made me wonder if I
might not have been looking at a Lesser Black-backed,
or even a Great Black-backed. The bill certainly
looked big. From what I have read, the Lesser
black-backed's bill should not look so big, but I
guess after looking at Laughing Gulls and Ring-bills,
the bill on an LBBG might still seem pretty big. The
trouble with Great Black-backed is, I think I would
have recognized that species--plus, I did not notice a
pale-looking head. At least, that was not the
impression I had on my brief look at the bird.

Any thoughts?

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

PS Although I was down there making funeral
arrangements for my dad, who had just died
unexpectedly, I did get to take a walk with my mom at
a beautiful place called Washington Gardens State
Park. A mini warbler wave was in progress, and we got
to see a couple of Cape Mays, a Yellow-throated, a
Northern Waterthrush, along with lots of
Black-throated Blues, Ovenbirds, Northern Parulas, and
Blackpolls. Other migrants included a Veery, lots of
Indigo Buntings, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and quite a
few Red-eyed Vireos (no Black-whiskered, though). Over
at the beach, late flocks of Gannets were offshore.
Anyone wanting to see birds in Florida would enjoy a
visit to that part of the state--but soon, since
Flagler County is the fasting growing county in the US
right now.



Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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