Friday 6 January 2012

Peterborough gulls

Yesterday I got a call from Don Sutherland telling me he had a bunch of "good" gulls on Little Lake in Peterborough so today I brought my scope with me to work and made a detour on my way home.  When I pulled up on the south side of the lake I could see a handful of gulls out on the ice but I figured I was in for a dissapointment because there were only about 100 gulls.

However, once I started scanning I was pleasantly surprised by the variety.  I managed: 3 Iceland, 1 Lesser Black-backed, 5 Glaucous, 2 Great Black-backed and 4 Ring-billed, with the rest being Herrings - not bad for Peterborough! The first four species were new for my ebird Peterborough county list. While I was there the gulls were pretty active and one of the Glaucous Gulls flew right over me and I managed a couple crappy shots:


What do you think the age of this bird is? I thought third winter, but I know it is hard to see very well from the photos...

I also had a gull on the ice here that I felt was likely a Nelson's Gull (Herring x Glaucous) although it seemed a bit darker than I would have liked.  It was similarly sized to the first winter Glaucous Gull it was standing beside, but appeared similar in plumage to a first winter Herring Gull (although on the darker side of the spectrum).  The bill was heavy and discinctly bicolored like a typical first winter Glaucous Gull.

Anyways, after I left Little Lake I found some more gulls just south of Trent University on the river and sure enough there were some more white-winged gulls - a single first winter each of Glaucous and Iceland.  It was getting late so I headed for home.  The only other thing of note I had was a Northern Shrike just south of Apsley.

Here are my two ebird checklists in case you want to see the details or the locations:
Little Lake
Trent University


1 comment:

  1. Great posting! My bf agrees that it looks like a third winter because it looks like the adult mantle feathers are filling in. Happy New Year!
    Janean

    ReplyDelete