I don't think my original post made it to the new
list, so I'm posting it again. Sorry if this is a
repeat.
Seen at 5:00 pm today directly across the channel from
the boat ramp at Gravelly Point, which is off the
George Washington Parkway just south of the 14th
Street (I-395) bridge.
First, I've never seen a yellow-legged gull before and
I know positive identification has pitfalls and is not
an exact science. However, this bird was an adult and
had all the field marks shown in the Sibley Guide (I
don't have any more advanced gull texts to refer to).
The bird was at first standing on the bank of the
channel next to an adult herring gull about 60-80
yards away. The light was low (evening) but good.
The bird was in the shade. I observed it through
10x50 binoculars.
I noticed at once that the bird was different from the
herring gull next to it because its head was
unstreaked (if there was any streaking it was very
limited). Seeing this difference, I observed the bird
more closely and noticed that it had pale yellow legs.
The legs were mostly covered with mud, but the upper
legs did not appear to be covered with mud and
appeared to be a pale yellow color--they were
definitely not pink). It was about the same size as
the adjacent herring gull, possible slightly smaller,
but appeared stockier. It had a shorter neck and
larger head then the herring gull and had a noticeably
heavier and shorter bill. The red spot on the bill
appeared quite large (larger than the spot on the
herring gull's bill). It had a pale yellow eye (I was
not close enough to see the suborbital ring color).
The bird also had a gray mantle that appeared to be
exactly the same shade as the adjacent herring gull (I
have never seen a lesser black-backed with a mantle as
light as that of a herring gull). If the mantle was a
shade darker than that of the adjacent herring gull,
it was barely noticeable and it looked about the same
to me. The last thing I noticed was that the white
mirrors on the black primary tips were significantly
larger than those on the adjacent herring gull. It
did not fly.
The gull started to walk along the bank of the river
feeding in the shallows and moved off into direct
sunlight where I could not observe it any longer. I
guess its possible that this was an extermely light
mantled lesser black-backed but the combination of
other field marks makes me think this might be the
real thing. Hopefully it will hang around so someone
can confirm it tomorrow.
Philip Kline
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