[NatureNS] Thoughts on Kings Co. gulls

Date: Sun, 06 Mar 2011 16:18:58 -0400
From: iamclar@dal.ca
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All:

I was "poaching" in Richard Stern's patch along the Canning Rd over  
the noon hour, and missed the Glaucous Gulls found by him. I was  
really looking for Horned Larks - no one else has turned up subspecies  
other than alpestris yet - but  I didn't see any small birds along the  
road edges. Melting has exposed lots of good terrain for them in the  
fields. I was, indeed ,struck by the vast numbers of gulls in the area  
- far exceeding the flocks of at most scores that we see these days  
around Halifax Hbr. I guesstimated the largest flock some 100s of m   
west of Church St. to have about 1300 birds.

This is probably the wrong time of year to expect vagrants among them,  
but I did see very briefly one gull, smaller than nearby Herrings and  
slightly darker mantled, and with what appeared to be a dark mark on  
its bill. I had just focussed on its legs, which appeared to be   
greyish at first glance, when the group took off and landed afar.

Many years ago, in Oct. 1976, a Mew Gull was seen near Canning by  
several of us and photographed by me at great distance. We hardly knew  
then about the Common Gull as an almost certainly different species  
from the N. Am. Mew Gull, but the one distant photo shows of the  a  
relatively tiny bill and very rounded head - a plausible match for a  
N. Am. Mew Gull.

I think some very close scrutiny of the large Valley flocks could   
produce California and Mew Gull. Possibly not until next fall, though,  
as they may favour agricultural land over seacoasts at that season.

Cheers, Ian

Ian McLaren


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