[texbirds] Retraction of two gull sightings
- From: Anthony Hewetson <terrverts@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "leasbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <leasbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2014 11:12:02 -0800 (PST)
Greetings All:
Based on the comments of an anonymous gull expert recruited to review our
e-bird records of a second winter Lesser Black-backed Gull on 12/24/13 and a
first winter California Gull on 12/25/13 - both at Lake Ridge Golf Course - it
appears that over-reliance on field guides rife with errors and inadequate
knowledge about potential size variation in the 'American' Herring Gull led at
least two observers (including myself) down the primrose path to
misidentification of subadult gulls. This is not the first time this will
happen and probably not the last?
Reviewing the comments of the gull expert and several specialty websites on
gull identification, we focussed too much on ruling out Ring-billed Gull and
didn't pay enough consideration to the fact that some 'smithsonianus' Herring
Gulls can be scarce larger than Ring-billed Gulls and are potentially confused
with some of the so-called mid-sized gulls. Apparently, we should have been a
tad more focussed on ruling out Herring Gull! This certainly seems to be the
case with the California Gull - neither the description or the photographs
obtained rule out an exceptionally small Herring Gull. This is a bit less the
case with the Lesser Black-backed Gull - some described traits are inconsistent
for Lesser Black-backed Gull (particularly the bill color - misillustrated in
just about every field guide out there as bicolored) and some described traits
are inconsistent with Herring Gull - but there is enough confusion in the
description to warrant rejection
by e-bird and by the ABA compiler for the region.
Consequently, both records will be rejected. I am also in the process of
reviewing previous reports of California Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull from
the LEAS region in order to cull any potentially bad records. I suspect that
most of the first winter records will survive the process but there is a good
chance that all second winter records will be, at the minimum, asterisked.
The moral of the story: there is nothing worse than trying to identify first
and second winter birds with the conventional field guides in hand.
Off to find a better gull guide suggestions would be appreciated.
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
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