[wisb] Re: Paul's gull at Prairie du Sac
- From: "Steve Thiessen" <stevethiessen@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <stevethiessen@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "wisb" <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:27:29 -0600
The best match in the books is the adult Vega gulls in Gulls of the
Americas. I like 25c.1 on page 175. The gull at the dam didn't seem to have
the dark around the eye. Bill ,mantle color and primarys match what I
remember. Legs were a little less pink. Page 178 shows the same underwing
tones. I had a hard time focusing in on the area where the blacker area of
the primaries meets the grey. Lighting can really make it hard to trust what
you think your seeing on moving wings. Steve Thiessen Stoughton Dane co.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Thiessen" <stevethiessen@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "wisb" <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 9:01 PM
Subject: [wisb] Paul's gull at Prairie du Sac
>
> Nolan Pope and I went up for gulls today. Lots of gulls around the dam
> area. We saw 1 possibly 2 light 1st winter Thayer's and, what I imagine,
> the darker mantled gull that Paul was struggling with. Guess what, I'm
> struggling with it also. We had great views sitting and flying. The gulls
> mantle color was 2 (or 3) shades darker than the regular herrings.Once you
> spotted it, it was easy to pick out. If I had to pick a comparable gull
> color maybe a very light lesser black-backed (graelsii type) or a very
> dark vega type herring (of which I have no experience) It was the size of
> the biggest herrings. Seemed slightly larger than most it went by. Even
> hunched over and chased a few away from it's space. It's legs were pink
> (not the winter non-color), including the webbing in the feet. The primary
> extention past the tail seemed average, like a herring gulls. Bill was
> yellow an was fairly thick, by this I mean not slender like some l b-b's.
> I know this is highly variable. It has a la
> rge red gony spot. It had medium yellow eyes. We couldn't see any eye ring
> color. When sitting the black of the primaries was very distinct from the
> mantle color. The primaries had average white ends. And a mirror on p-10
> and I think on p-9. Sitting it had a had a fairly thick white cresent.
> When flying the underside of the flight feathers had a light gray shade to
> them, not white like the herrings. In glimps it gave the look of sub-
> terminal marking from the bottom. This may have been from the bright sun.
> From the top , I didn't see any obvious moons on p5-7.
> So what all this means is I would love to see a few photos of it's wings.
> My eyes weren't keeping up to the movement.
> Steve Thiessen Stoughton Dane co.
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