After the lake effect snows let up, a trip down to Rich Marine at the foot of Austin Street (along the Niagara River) in Buffalo, Erie County this afternoon turned up a group of roughly 120 Herring Gulls sitting on the ice at the north end of the Black Rock Canal. Flying around and/or sitting amongst them were 4 Glaucous Gulls (adult and 3 first-cycles), 2 "Kumlien's" (Iceland) Gulls, a Thayer's Gull (2nd-cycle), and a "Nelson's" (Herring x Glaucous hybrid) Gull (1st-cycle). The Thayer's was as expected for the age class although it was already getting quite pale in the eyes, while the Nelson's was quite dark on the body and wings (within the variation of Herring Gull), but had a Glaucous Gull head and bill pattern, in addition to being quite large and bulky.
The marina can be accessed from the 190 by taking either the Austin or Ontario St. exits to Niagara St. and turning west on Austin St. which will take you to the marina. Currently the drive into the marina is not plowed, so either 4 wheel drive and/or a high profile vehicle is needed, although one could park on Austin Street and walk past the cones to the marina/docks. All the birds are close (less than 50 yards) on the ice and identifiable with binoculars, although at times they can be somewhat skittish. Afterwards I headed further south to Erie Basin marina and many thousands of ducks remain, although the conditions at the time (12 degrees and windy) made it difficult to scope anything beyond 300 yards. The only highlights here were a distant first-cycle Kumlien's (Iceland) Gull on Donnelly's Pier, and a drake White-winged Scoter in the close lead between the inner and middle breakwalls. Photos of the "Nelson's" and Thayer's Gulls can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmpawli10/ Jim Pawlicki Amherst, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
