I've been hitting a few gull hotspots in east-central Florida in between giving talks and leading trips at the Space Coast Birding Festival. Yesterday, at the Brevard County Landfill in Cocoa, Florida, I had 250+ Lesser Black-backeds. It's always fun to see the amount of variation in 1st winter birds - it reminds me of how little I know this species in its first plumage cycle (more on this later). I always get the feeling when I visit this region that we're sitting on a big mystery waiting to be revealed.
In any case, here are a couple of highlights for the day:
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| Iceland Gull (1st cycle). A "beefy" bird with a short wing projection. Florida's first this winter. |
I was also excited to spot this 1st cycle American Herring from Appledore Island in Maine. This individual was banded on 15 July 2015 (one day before my visit to the island back in July):
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| "Green 26H" - The first resight of this bird since it was banded. |
That's all for now...
