The gulls have come back, and we are very glad about that! Our family gathering on Christmas day was near the landfill, so some of us cousins headed down to a wheat field where the gulls were milling. There were roughly 2000 sitting about a hundred yards off the road, and we could scope them very well. The highlight was a first cycle Glaucous, a major nemesis for Joseph, that showed up after about an hour. We also saw a gull that doesn't seem quite right for any particular species. There is a possibility that it is a Cook Inlet (Herring x Glaucous-winged) which would be very rare, although I did see one at the sandpit nearby last winter.
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| First cycle Glaucous Gull |
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| Thayer's Gull wing pattern. |
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| Possible Cook Inlet Gull. What are your thoughts? |
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| Possible Cook Inlet Gull. Thoughts? |
Bryant and I made a run to the landfill again today. We had a third cycle Thayer's, something we Kansans don't see very often, an adult Glaucous, and 6 Lesser Black-backeds, our best count for this winter so far.
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| Poor pic of the adult Glaucous. |
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| Adult Thayer's Gull. |
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| Adult Herring that flew right by the truck. |
Hopefully we start to get some mega rarities soon!
Andrew
I've been watching for a report of your Christmas Day bird outing. Thanks for posting.
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