December 9th 2004. Rochester WWTP, NH. (Probable) American Herring Gull Larus smithsonianus, juvenile/first-winter. This bird caught my attention for a number of reasons.The patterning on the upperparts looked delicate and uniform, lacking the coarse barring and/or chequering obvious on similarly aged smithsonianus present. The tertial centers were also clearly paler than the dark brown primaries. It had a Thayer's like dark 'mask' which can be seen in all the shots included here. It appeared rather short-legged with the legs being a deep pink color. The tail looked dark and very like 'smith' like. Is this just an over anemic smithsonianus or possibly something else? Unfortunately I don't have any good flight shots of this bird. |
| Images taken using Nikon Coolpix 995 and a Swarovski Habicht AT 80 HD telescope. |
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