I started at Whiting this afternoon with a 2nd cycle Glaucous, along with an adult and 3rd cycle Thayer's being the highlights. Others had reported decent numbers of GBBGs in the morning but I only saw ~8.
Don Gorney and I left Whiting and decided we'd meet up at Cal Park in Chicago to see if we can relocate an adult Slaty-backed reported earlier in the day. No luck with that bird, but we picked up a few more highlights while enjoying the company of Carolyn Marsh from the pier.
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| Lesser Black-backed Gull (3rd cycle type). Chicago, IL. 07 February 2015. |
The bird above was suspiciously pale and had a honkin' bill. I hate to automatically attribute this to Herring influence, but it's tempting.
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| Photo slightly underexposed. |
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| Great Black-backed (1st cycle). Chicago, IL. 07 February 2015. |
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| Great Black-backed (1st cycle). Chicago, IL. 07 February 2015. |
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| Great Black-backed Gull (adult). Chicago, IL. 07 February 2015. |
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| Great Black-backed Gull (adult). Chicago, IL. 07 February 2015. |
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| Great Black-backed Gull (adult). Chicago, IL. 07 February 2015. |
My favorite bird of the day was this adult Thayer's/Kumlien's type:
What I didn't notice in the field was that this bird has a dark right eye (likely defective) and a pale left eye:
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| Adult Thayer's/Kumlien's with dark right eye and pale left eye. |
Herring Highlights:
A number of adult type HERGs are showing all-white heads already. I spotted this banded adult, but trying to read out the sequence in flight here is hopless:
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| Banded adult HERG with 2nd cycle HERG and small 1st cycle GBBG. Whiting, IN. 07 February 2015. |
Don and I observed a pair of adults courting...I wonder if these are local birds or birds that pair up here and then migrate together.
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| Herring Gulls (adults). Whiting, Indiana. 07 February 2015. |
This 3rd cycle type HERG has a relatively wide tail band for this age, but interestingly, the two outer rectrices are with little black:
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| Mirror only on right P10. Chicago, IL. 07 February 2015. |
