MA - Lesser Black-backed Gull - juv 11/18

Lesser Black-backed Gull - juvenile with adult Great Black-backed Gull, Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. November 18th, 2010. First interesting large gull of the season - still no 'white-winged' gulls at Turner's this fall/winter. Lesser Black-backs are by no means rare here, but birds in this age-class (fresh juvenile) have been few and far between. Off the top of my head, I can only remember one other. Features include; nice slender all black bill, long black wings, overall whitish cast to head and body, obvious dark 'mask' around eye, narrow fringes to scapulars creating 'scaly' look, white vent and undertail coverts with relatively sparse spotting & barring (compared to American Herring Gull), and relatively small, delicate build compared to Great Black-backed and American Herring Gulls. Found relatively late in the day, hence the rather poor quality images.



Also this evening, some 50+ Common Goldeneyes came into roost, plus single Black Scoters on the power canal and at Barton Cove, 70+ Common Mergansers and 10+ Hooded Mergansers and a handful of Buffledheads. One American Coot remains.