There were close to 100 gulls on the sunny grass at Tom McCall Park south
of Hawthorne Bridge, west end yesterday(1/14) while another 50 rested on
the boathouse roof next to the fire house(5 SE Madison) on the east bank.
A similar number on Sunday were mostly on the boathouse roof. Last year
when l scrutinized these gulls they were 60% adult Californias . I can't
recall the month, but that seemed unusual. Now it's nearly all pink feet,
almost 90% G-wing/Olympic/Cook Inlet. There were 4 1st year Thayer's on
both the left and right bank flock yesterday , similar amounts of Herring
adult and young, a few adult Thayer's, pure Westerns. A very dark mantled
gull on the grass got me excited so I foolishly tried to digiscope it,
allowing it to fly away unobserved as l fumbled with the phone. It had
intense pink feet, which excludes LBBG, and very dark eyes, precluding
Slaty-backed. I suppose it was a southern Western. I couldn't get over how
dark they all look in Port Orford when l was there for the CBC.
Just a token Ring-bill on the boathouse roof Sunday, replaced by a
single adult Cal on Monday. About 8 of the aforementioned non-pinkfeet were
keeping seperate on the left bank grass Monday. A Cal with a lot of
juvenile feathers still visible got me needlessly enthused at the end and l
put more money in the parking meter. A much smaller flock at the mouth of
Hood River last Thursday showed just as much variety, including a strong
Cook Inlet (G-wing X Herring)presence.
Gull numbers at both ends of the Hawthorne Bridge peak around 3-4pm,
when in favorable weather they are still in sunlight. Lars
