February 5th, 2007. Unity Park, Barton Cove, Franklin County, MA. Glaucous and Nelson's Gulls. All first cycle. A wild day to be out, perhaps the coldest of the year to date. Just 10 F with a blustery north-west wind taking the chill factor well below zero. Spurred on by the sighting of a great dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk over Route 9 in Hadley, I headed up to Turner's Falls to check the gull situation. A small pack of less than 300 hundred gulls on the ice just off Unity Park, Barton Cove was enough to keep me busy and I never got the power canal. Clearly interesting things going on with this one small group of gulls producing 3 Lesser Black-backs (all first/second cycle), 2 Glaucous Gulls (first cycle) and yet another Nelson's Gull (first cycle). Images taken using Canon Powershot A540 through Swarovski HD telescope. |
   Nelson's Gull - center. Large, very pale and overall rather Glaucous like but with mid-brown primaries and smithsonianus like tail pattern. This individual quite closely resembles the very first Nelson's Gull that I photographed at Barton Cove, back in February 2005.   Galucous Gull - first cycle. A large, pale bird.  Glaucous Gull - first cycle. Darker bird, especially over head and body contrasting with creamy white primaries.   Galucous Gull - first cycle (right) with second cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull (center). |