February 7th 2007. Windsor/Bloomfield landfill, Hartford County, CT.
Large 'white headed' gull. Larus sp. Adult winter. Flight images.
This
intriguing large, dark mantled gull was found by Nick Bonomo in early
February. I visited the site today and met up with Nick, and EJ
Raynor. We had good opportunities to observe the gull at close range
and agreed on a number of points;
- It was larger than most/average smithsonianus present.
- Structurally,
it looked heavy billed, flat crowned and often square headed with a
full chested, long winged and long legged appearance. It looked
especially long winged in flight.
- It was dark-mantled, approaching graellsii in tone but perhaps lighter with the black primary tips clearly demarcated from the gray. A graellsii/intermedius seen at the site later in the day did not show a clear difference between black primary tips and upperparts tone.
- The
outer primaries, P9 and P10 were about the same length at rest and may
not have been fully grown indicating the final stages of primary molt.
- The winter head streaking was darkest around the eye and across the nape where it appeared to be more blotchy.
- The
bird had a bright red orbital ring. The legs appeared dull yellow,
sometimes fleshy-yellow depending on light. The right leg was also
slightly oil stained.
All images taken in bitterly cold conditions (about 18F with strong WNW winds).
Flight images taken using Canon Powershot A540 through Leica 8 x 42 binoculars.
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