The first week of November is behind us and large gulls continue to trickle in. Between Lake County, Illinois and Berrien County, Michigan, I recorded 3 Thayer's and 7 Lesser Black-backeds this past weekend. No Great Black-backeds, nor Glaucous, nor Kumlien's Gulls.
Berrien County, Michigan. 08 November 2015.
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| (1) THGU. Adult. Taken during the last moments of daylight. |
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| (2) THGU. Adult. Same individual above. |
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| (3) LBBG. Juvenile. |
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| (4) LBBG. Juvenile. Same individual above. |
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| (5) LBBG. Juvenile. Same individual above. |
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| (6) LBBG. Juvenile. Same individual above. |
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| (7) HERG, LBBG and RBGU. |
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| (8) LBBG & HERG. |
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| (9) 1st cycle HERG with sparse barring on undertail. |
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| (10) 1st cycle HERG. Same individual above. |
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| (11) In the field, this adult HERG showed noticeable horizontal barring on the neck/breast, although it lacked the wavy pattern often seen with Glaucous-winged Gulls. |
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| (12) Juvenile HERG. |
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| (13) Juvenile HERG. |
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| (14) 2nd cycle HERG. |
Lake County, Illinois. 07 November 2015.
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| (15) A somewhat retarded 2nd cycle HERG. |
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| (16) Same individual above. |
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| (17) Same individual above. |
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| (18) Same individual above. |
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| (19) Same individual above. |
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| (20) 1st HERG with relatively marbled greater coverts, not too unlike the 2nd cycle above. |
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| (21) Juvenile HERG with a couple of replaced scapulars. |
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| (22) Juvenile HERG. Open wing below. |
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| (23) White ground color to uppertail coverts. Same individual above. |
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| (24) 1st cycle with stress/fault bar across rectrices and remiges. |
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| (25) Same individual above. The primaries always seem to fair better than the tail feathers when it comes to stress bars. |
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| (26) 1st cycle HERG with about half of its scapulars replaced. Vent region sparsely marked. |
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| (27) Same individual above. |
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| (28) Adult type HERG with p10 still growing. |
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| (29) 3rd cycle type HERG with p-molt complete. |
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| (30) 3rd cycle type HERG. Flight shot below. |
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(31) Same individual above. The full band on p4 likely age-related.
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(32) RBGU. Hatch year. Extensive brown scaling on body. Moderate wing covert and tertial renewal.
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(33) This Ring-billed has to top any hatch year RBGU that I've observed before in terms of post-juvenile feather molt. Most of the wing coverts, tertials and scapulars have been replaced here.
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