THAYER'S GULL, Windsor Landfill - Dec 12

12/12: I'll be out of town for much of the next 5 days (with only intermittent laptop access) but wanted to post these images of this interesting Thayer's-type bird from the Windsor Landfill today. Found the bird at noon, had it in view for ~2 mins before it flew down towards the Farmington River, ran back to the car to jot down notes and a flight sketch (wingtip looked good for Thayer's from both above and below), then searched for two more hours without success.
Images in no particular order:


Rear bird





Left-center. Mantle color was a tad darker than surrounding HEGUs, but by a very slight amount. Decent general comparison to nearby HEGUs.





Dark iris, but when the light hit it just right I could see that it was a touch paler than the jet-black pupil.







Close-ups of wingtip. Primary tips were black (very HEGU-like).


Nice example of the bird's expression. Note the dark eye, forehead sloping into bill with yellow-green base, and soft/blurry streaking through the head onto the nape and breast. Orbital ring in the field was viewed as deep red-pink.



Pink legs.



No sign of any blackish markings on the bill.




Just for fun, here's a pic of a dark-eyed "Kumlien's" Iceland Gull that was also present:



And a first-winter Glaucous Gull:



- Nick

Comments

  1. James P. SmithDecember 12, 2008 at 9:37 PM

    Congratulations Nick! This looks fantastic - just the sort of bird that I'd have loved to have found locally. I think I need to study your technique a bit more. What is it now - two visits to the landfill this fall and two 'mega' gulls. Nice work indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Luke TillerDecember 12, 2008 at 9:40 PM

    Certainly looks more than interesting Nick. Let another ID Frontiers discussion begin!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. BenDecember 13, 2008 at 11:26 AM

    It has a lot of black on the wingtip. Aside from that, it looks pretty classic for Thayer's. I'd like to see a spread wing though. I've seen a grand total of 1 adult Thayer's Gull, so take my opinion for what it is.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dawn FineDecember 13, 2008 at 9:40 PM

    Great find..

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownDecember 17, 2008 at 9:46 AM

    I just found your site.
    Great stuff.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CAPE VERDE SHEARWATER off Cape Cod, MA - August 12, 2022

Image
For the past couple months, Ian Davies and I had been eyeing this week for a little summer Cape Cod birding adventure. The feasibility of this plan would depend largely on the weather, as I wanted to trailer the boat to the Cape for access to pelagic waters and Monomoy NWR. After a rather uncertain and oft-changing forecast thanks to a stationary front passage, a brief weather window opened for the second half of the week. Julian Hough was free to join me for the mini vacation, so we left CT on Tuesday evening. Wednesday was spent shorebirding; Ian had to work that day, but Pete Trimble and Phil Rusch filled out the boat. Thursday found us rained out, but we regrouped for a full Friday on the water. At sunrise on Friday the 12th, Ian, Julian, and Pete & Jeremiah Trimble and I left the harbor and headed around the tip of Monomoy to the productive waters east of Chatham. I had been out there a handful of times prior between my boat and a friend's, and there has always been at lea
Read more

Last winter's gull review

Today's cooler, blustery conditions combined with the appearance of an Ivory Gull in Cape May got me thinking more about the upcoming gull season and reflecting on last year's. The 2008-09 gulling in the northeast was pretty damn good and included a few really exciting birds. The season started out with a bang exactly one year ago today with CT's first Slaty-backed Gull . On 12/12 an adult Thayer's Gull put in a brief appearance at the Windsor-Bloomfield Landfill, CT's premier gull hotspot, followed by a first-winter bird on 12/23. A Black-headed Gull spent the winter in New Haven Harbor. Perhaps 'gull of the year' was a subadult Glaucous-winged Gull in Rochester, NH, found by Scott Young...a first record for New England. Meanwhile Gloucester, MA was once again the gull capital of New England. I happened to already be up in Boston when news of an adult Ivory Gull broke on 1/17. I still get chills thinking about that weekend. Of course there were plen
Read more

CURLEW SANDPIPER - Stratford, CT

Image
Frank Mantlik struck again yesterday by finding a bright adult CURLEW SANDPIPER in a small golf course pond along the Stratford, CT coast. This was the first chaseable Curlew Sand in the state in over 20 years, thus unblocking this species for an entire generation of birders. Out of town and unable to partake in the twitch, I was hoping the bird would stick another day. This morning's negative reports were discouraging. The only reasonable play was to wait for the afternoon high tide and hit the local roosts. I started on the rising tide at Milford Point, where some 150 birds came to roost but could not settle thanks to foot traffic. Even with more tide to come, this felt like a lost cause, so I drove across the estuary to Stratford Point. The roost here held ~500 birds, and the Curlew Sand was smack in the middle. Better late than never! Thanks, Frank! (click image for higher res viewing)  - NB
Read more