Wednesday, January 25, 2012

CA - Glaucous Gulls

Sorting through the many thousands of gulls on the shore of the Salton Sea produced some nice surprises including two Glaucous Gulls, one at Niland on Jan 15th with my group, and one at the end of Lindsey Road on the 18th. Initially, I took both to be first-cycle birds but I'm no longer sure that the Lindsey Road bird can be aged as such and may be actually be a second-cycle.

 
Glaucous Gull - first-cycle with American Herring Gull, Niland, Imperial Co., CA. January 15th, 2012.




 Glaucous Gull - first/second-cycle with American Herring Gulls, West end of Lindsey Road, Imperial Co., CA. January 18th, 2012. Seems to show quite poorly defined black tip to the bill and a paler eye than the bird at Niland on the 15th. Also notable, quite obvious blotchy brown markings on the upperparts and on the lower flanks and vent. Heat haze caused some blurring of the images along with the on-going problem of getting close to gulls at the Salton Sea. Apologies for the poor quality shots.

JPS

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