No White-winger Weekend

There are lots of neat gulls currently being seen in the lower 48, but they're not white-wingers!! A juvenile Sabine's Gull in Kentucky, an adult Red-legged Kittiwake touched down in Oregon (#11 for that state) and Ohio's 1st Kelp record are the most noteworthy. Outside of the Duluth area, Thayer's seem to be scarce right now. The lower Great Lakes region is struggling to come up with any Iceland or Glaucous Gulls (although a few have been reported here and there). Given that it's mid-December, as my friend Jen Brumfield put it, "it's like pulling teeth".

I checked several sites on the far southwest shores of Lake Michigan this weekend and could only muster up one adult type Lesser Black-backed Gull (Lake County, Illinois - p-molt complete to p8, p9/p10 retained). Whiting, Indiana gave up 7 Great Black-backeds at the BP Refinery (at this time of year there's usually 2-3 times that many).

Plain axillaries, paling bill base and nail and white-edged secondaries all
point to a 2nd cycle individual, albeit a somewhat delayed bird (see below).

2nd Cycle GBBG (same individual above). Whiting, IN. 13 December 2015.