Crazy Gulls!

      Last Wednesday, Andrew Burnett came up from Neosho County to bird the Reno Co landfill.  He had what he thought was an Iceland Gull, a possible California Gull, and another first cycle gull he thought might be a Western.  He emailed Joseph, who went over right away with Anthony and managed to confirm that there was indeed a first cycle California and an intermediate Thayer's/Iceland Gull, which we still aren't convinced on either way.  They couldn't find the possible Western.  He did find a first cycle Great Black-backed Gull at the sandpit!

Good looking first cycle Great Black-backed!  Photo by Joseph

First cycle California.  It is the dark one close to the middle.  Photo by Anthony

Unfortunately, I couldn't go that day and when Joseph and I went the next day we didn't see any of the rarities.  As a consolation, we did have our highest count for Glaucous Gulls in one day, with three individuals!

This hulking first cycle Glaucous really stuck out!

On Saturday, Mark Land came down from Overland Park and together we went to check on things again.  We checked the sandpit first and refound the first cycle Glaucous along with a Thayer's.  Next, we headed over to a wheat field across from the landfill where several thousand gulls were loafing.  Before we even got out of the car I spotted a large black backed gull and let everybody know that there was either a Great Black-backed or a Slaty-backed out there!  We got out and put Mark's scope on it and it turned out to be a Great Black-backed!  That means there were two individuals there within three days of each other!  Not bad for review list birds!

Unfortunately, the Great Black-backed was far enough away that we could only manage trashy pics.

The gulls were far enough away that we decided to head on over to the landfill.  We pulled in and asked where to park, and they told us to go over right beside the fence.  After about fifteen minutes, we saw a first cycle California, but unfortunately it was right behind the fence.  We did get great binocular views, just not pics.  It was probably the same one that Joseph had on Wednesday.

We also refound the same gull we had seen on Christmas day, one that we thought might be a Cook Inlet Gull (Hybrid Herring x Glaucous-winged.)  When we sent it to the experts, there were varying opinions.  Several thought it was a Cook Inlet while one thought it was a normal Thayer's.  Oh, the joy of gulls!

Mystery Gull.

This first cycle Thayer's made several close passes by the vehicle, so I just had to snap a few pics.

On Wednesday, Joseph and Anthony had 7 species of gulls and when we went on Saturday we got that many again.  Those are our best single day gull species counts ever!  I thought that since this winter was warmer we might have a bit of a down gull year, but I was wrong!

Andrew