Turner's Falls, MA. November 11th, 2005.
| Franklin's Gull Larus pipixcan. First-winter. Seen again.
| Today's notes from a short afternoon outing;
Hadley - South Maple Street
Eastern Bluebird - 2
Horned Lark - 10+
Fox Sparrow - 1
Hadley - Moody Bridge Road (12:50 - 13:15hrs);
CATTLE EGRET - 1 moving south low over farmland at 13:00hrs.
Red-tailed Hawk - 10 flew SW including 3 together.
Cooper’s Hawk - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Northern Flicker - 1
Lapland Longspur - 15 flew south (3,12).
Turner’s Falls - Barton Cove
Ruddy Duck - 1
American Coot - 3
Kumlien’s Iceland Gull - 1 (1st-w).
Turner’s Falls Power Canal
Canada Goose - 600+
(Greater) SNOW GOOSE - 1 juvenile remains.
Bufflehead - 3
Lesser Scaup - 1 (dull) male.
Hooded Merganser - 10.
Common Merganser - 20 (5 males).
Common Goldeneye - 3 .
Bald Eagle - 1 juvenile.
American Coot - 1
Kumlien’s Iceland Gull - 1 juvenile/first winter. Probably the same from Barton Cove.
American Herring Gull - 7
Great Black-backed Gull - 5
*FRANKLIN’S GULL
-
1, first-winter, passed over the canal at 16:37 - 16:40hrs. The
same bird as Nov 8th, passing me at EXACTLY the same time as it did on
that date. This time the bird didn't land to preen or bath but flew
straight through with a small flock of Ring-bills, perhaps the last
flock of the day. It flew up river straight towards the Barton Cove
gull roost. Fortunately I grabbed just one poor quality shot through my
binoculars as it flew past in the fading light.
There were 500/600 gulls in the roost, including the
Kumlien’s Iceland Gull but the light was too bad to pick out the
Franklin's by the time that I arrived at Barton Cove . However, I
feel very sure that it must have roosted there.
Common Raven - 8 (over a hill to the south, perhaps Mt.Toby)
| Update from Nov 10th - Regarding records of this species for Western Massachusetts, Seth Kellogg has kindly provided this information;
Only two records for Franklins Gull, (or perhaps three)
September 15 - 22, 1986 in Amherst, at the Amherst landfill.
September 22, 1986 a bird found at the Longmeadow Sandbar may have been the Amherst bird on its way south.
June 28, 1997 a bird was seen at Lake Onota, near Pittsfield by Bob Goodrich.
Unfortunately, despite the efforts of a number of birders at Turner's Falls on November 9th and 10th, the Franklin's Gull wasn't seen again until November 11th..
| | All images taken using Canon Powershot A-95 through Swarovski HD telescope and Leica 10x42 binoculars. |
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