[texbirds] Good gulling in Lubbock this morning.

From: Anthony Hewetson <terrverts@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "leasbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <leasbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 25 Dec 2013 10:41:32 -0800 (PST)
Greetings All:
I returned to the back parking lot of the Rib Crib this morning (82nd and 
Slide) to work the largest lake at Lake Ridge Golf Course.  I stayed there from 
8:45 to 11:30 - Phillip Kite joined me for quite a bit of the period.  Gull 
turnover was constant.  The peak number I counted was 117 but flock size and 
composition was constantly shifting.

When I arrived the probable second winter Lesser Black-backed Gull was present 
but it maintained too great a distance for photographs.  I tried to get closer 
but was warned off by somebody representing the golf course.  There was also an 
adult winter Herring Gull (I got minimally acceptable pictures with a borrowed 
camera).  There was also a first winter Herring Gull (I got very poor pictures 
of this bird).

By the time Phillip arrived the putative Lesser Black-backed Gull was gone as 
was the adult winter Herring Gull but there were now 2 first winter Herring 
Gulls and Phillip was able to get good shots of at least one of these birds.  
There was also an intriguing little item (Phillip, hopefully, got some usable 
photographs) that looked to be a first winter Calilfornia Gull.  At some point 
he is going to download the photographs to my computer and we are going to go 
through them to see if we produced a usable image of the potential California 
Gull.

For those not familiar with the Lubbock area, Herring Gull used to be 
relatively easy to find in the region during winter (perhaps lower double 
digits at in-town playas) but for at least the last five years it has been 
close to absent.  To have three Herring Gulls at a single site in a day is 
genuinely noteworthy.  Top that off with scruffy looking, bigger than 
Ring-billed Gull, smaller than Herring Gull, brownish jobs and things are 
genuinely interesting.


Some other highlights present at the site: 2 Common Goldeneyes, 8 Common 
Mergansers, and 2 Red-breasted Mergansers.

We hope to get back out there this afternoon (there were more birds in the 
afternoon than in the morning yesterday) and hope to get better shots of the 
more interesting gulls.  As it stands now, we have usable shots of one adult 
winter Herring Gull, usable shots of one first winter Herring Gull, potentially 
usable shots of a probable first winter California Gull, and nothing usable for 
the probably second winter Lesser Black-backed Gull ... but we will keep trying.

In the meantime, I would appreciate it if some of the gull fanciers would read 
the description I posted yesterday and send some comments my way.  My yahoo 
account does not work for some folk.  It is best to send comments to me at 
anthony.hewetson@xxxxxxxxxx

Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
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[texbirds] Good gulling in Lubbock this morning.

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