This morning Jim Hoteling found a strange gull with a hood and red bill at Dorchester Park Whitney Point Dam area. Initial thoughts were a LAUGHING GULL since we have had one before here. George Chiu got up there before me and he was thinking FRANKLIN'S GULL instead. As I was about 5 minutes away I get a text with the dreaded "the bird flew". How many times does this happen to you? Anyway, George and Jim tracked the bird as it flew over the dam and dropped. The Whitney Point Elementary School with its ball fields are on the other side. So I went there instead of Dorchester and when I saw bunch of RING-BILLED GULLs on the ball field my excitement peaked, and it was an easy find. I noticed the thick eye-rings first, smaller bill and size and I agreed with George's assessment. Looked good for a FRANKLIN'S GULL, a first county ebird record and possibly first county record!!! I texted an image to an all-out expert I know from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and he also agreed.
Images can be found here... http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S36586894 The bird was foraging and eating a bunch of earthworms. He was having a feast since it was very wet and there were earthworms all over. Then the bird started vocalizing which was really neat. I have never heard a FRGU before, certainly different than LAGU. Then the bird took off alone and flew back over the dam toward Dorchester Park. I went back there, refound the bird, the bird didn't stay there long and it then took off and flew around me for a few minutes I got some audio recordings which was really neat. The bird flew north toward Upper Lisle County Park. I got it in my scope and watched it until he was out of sight. The bird did not take off that high as it stayed below the ridge line. So I went to Upper Lisle and searched all places I know that gulls hang out and didn't find any gulls at all. Hopefully, it will come back later today or tomorrow. The bird certainly was finding a lot of food!! Dave Nicosia -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
