Here's one I need help with from the experts. At about 11:45 a.m. today at
Wheatley Harbour, I found a gull perched on a piling in the marina that
immediately had me thinking "California." It had a black spot on the bill in
addition to the red spot, a more rounded-looking head, and greenish-yellow
legs. My brother Robert was with me, and we took turns studying it in his
scope.It was a bright, sunny morning, so it was difficult to accurately
judge whether the gray of the mantle was dark enough for a California, and
the bird was squinting a lot, making it hard to be certain of its iris
colour. My brother felt that the eye was dark, given a few good looks he
had; I can't be sure based on my views of the bird. It was clearly bigger
than the Ring-billeds it was associating with, but it was also hard to say
whether its size was that of a California or a Herring. But here is the
stumbling block: although the bird's legs were clearly a strong
yellow-green, its "feet" were pink. So, was this bird an aberrant-plumaged
Herring, or could it have been a hybrid California-Herring? I don't know
whether these two species hybridize or not.
We watched the bird for about 20 minutes from about 70 metres away. Before
we were able to get to the other side of the marina, where we could have
walked right up to it, the bird flew off with its companions and we were
unable to relocate it. (Hopefully someone else will.)
At Point Pelee, we had an immature Red-shouldered Hawk soaring over
DeLaurier, and a half-dozen Northern Shovelers in the marsh. I was surprised
that we only had 7 Killdeer all day, and no Turkey Vultures -- my brother
had 2 TVs in nearby Kingsville this past Tuesday.
I look forward to reading comments on my mystery gull.
Wheatley Harbour is located at the end of Kent Road 1 which runs north-south
through the town of Wheatley.
Randy Horvath, Windsor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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"Randy Horvath" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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