Hello Tweeters,
I was one of the many birders who saw the "Black-tailed Gull"I also went on
Tuesday in the afternoon,and the lighting was so bad.that it was impossible
to ID anything.This bird was photographed yesterday by Jeff Coven who got
real close from the boat what Sheep Thorn used to show three birders this
striking bird.I did never saw this gull ,even so this three birders had it
right close on the log ,where with out the Sun I would had great looks.
Sheep promise to take me out today with three other birders,even so I had
the Gull already saw with most birders,I was exited to going quite close for
some photos.But it start getting real windy with heavy rain,so we could not
find this Black-tailed Gull,what with the striking Fieldmarks,would be easy
to see.Looking back from Tuesday amount,there where on every pole huge
amount,but today there where much lesser Gulls,and it was not hard to pick
this beauty out.All of us got so whet soaked ,even with the best rain
gear,the wind did not helped.Thank you Shep of being so nice to even taken
us in this bad storm.
Cancellation from yesterday was that on the lighthouse Jeff Coven showed me
the so tame female Lapland Longspure,where I took enough photos,in case I
never ever seeing this birds so close.
We had 2 groups of birders the one early in the morning,where
the Black-tailed Gull was sighted in flight,it so happen that I had to meet
Shep and Hans at 11.30 AM on another pull off.I checked the Log boom from
the angel ,there was a large amount of birds on this Log manly California
,Mew,Western,Ring-bill and some Olympus Gulls,the Black-tailed Gull was
standing and stretching I had a good look on the banded tail.He than layed
down head tucked in,but most birders stayed on this Gull and to he finally
moved ,he was the last bird on this log and got disturbed by the huge SEAL
laying next to the Gull.Three of us followed Shep to
the boat where we than picked the other birders up from the site where we
was watching the Black-tailed Gull .Bad news since there told us that the
Gull flew off.I am still exited this seeing this RARE BIRD.The dates what I
saw this Species on 08-14-2004
09-18-2004 and on 09-25-2004
You can see this Gull on my Website under Gulls.
http://www.pbase.com/godwit/recent_photos



Cheers Ruth Sullivan