[texbirds] on Thayer's, Icelands, and ???? in Houston
- From: C-T Lee <cintylee@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 18:11:46 -0600
We've been having a remarkable gull season south of Baytown near
Houston. Probably the most remarkable thing is the sheer number of
Thayer's Gulls we've been seeing. Almost each visit I go, I have
found at least one. And it also looks like others are finding them.
These range from classic Thayer's to some that are on the pale side.
I've looked at all the photos and I think many of them are unique
birds, not repeat sightings. For example, at Thompson's Bait camp,
based on my observations and what I've seen of others, there have been
3 different 2nd winters (Janet's first bird with pale wingtips, mine
with darker wingtips and another with intermediate wingtips), an adult
(Janet's latest bird) and at least two different first winters. At
the end of Tri-city, there have been a few first winters, though not
clear if these were the same bird. Same goes at Cedar Point. So there
could easily be half dozen or more Thayer's gulls out there.
As for Icelands, Dave Sarkozi, John Berner, Drew Dickert, Mark Kulstad
and I had a classic 2nd winter Iceland a couple weeks ago.
And then there have been a few birds that are simply odd... on the
dark side of Iceland, but on the pale or washed out side of Thayer's.
Having grown up in California, my conservatism is to call these washed
out Thayer's. So for David Hanson's bird, I can see some of Al
Wormington's points that this potentially could be an Iceland. But
with these being the only photos, shading can be deceiving and it's
not obvious if it might instead be a pale Thayer's. More photos, of
different angles, would be ideal. I any case, I would be open to
Hanson's bird being an Iceland, but it seems on the dark side and I
don't know if the lightness is due to exposure effects. I do see that
its belly is dark and the bill isn't as small as a classic Iceland
(but not out of the variation).
On Saturday, Ron Weeks, Brad Lirette and I had yet another one of
these pale Thayer's types.
http://downtoearthquestions.blogspot.com/2015/01/western-grebe-and-pale-thayers-gulls.html
What to make of these birds? I don't know... but certainly, it's interesting.
C-T Lee
Houston
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