Sitka Nature

Much of the snow from earlier in the month is gone now, so I decided to look for some small things to do some macro photography. I found a little black cup fungi, and a small bryophyte. All of these photos were taken with the Canon 65mm 1-5x macro lens and available light.

 

A couple of days ago, I saw this gull at McDonalds hoping for handouts. Although the colors seemed basically right for a Thayer’s Gull, its bulk did not. It seemed very comparable in size/shape to other Glaucous-winged Gulls that were nearby, and qualitatively it struck me as significantly larger than I tend to associate with Thayer’s Gulls. I tried to get photos of it with other birds for comparison, but was unable to do so as there was a particularly aggressive bird that appeared to me to be a second-cycle Glaucous-winged Gull. It chased several birds away from the car, presumably to keep the potential food source itself (of course, while chasing the other birds away, it typically missed opportunities to grab a bite). On a number of occasions it chased this particular mystery gull.

For now I am thinking this bird is probably a Glaucous-winged x Herring Gull hybrid due to the large bulk, dark eyes, and dark wingtips. I am definitely not completely confident with this choice, and would be interested to hear alternative suggestions.

Unidentified Gulls

Mid-February seems to bring the arrival of mystery gull season. I’m not sure if it’s just an impression, or actually true in practice, but it seems like around this time more large gulls show up around town where they are easy to observe. For them, it’s the lean time of year, and the food available around town certainly plays a role in the gathering. Once the herring really move in during late March or early April, they are very abundant, though not always as easy to observe closely, and gradually numbers thin out a bit as spring heads into summer.

I recently took pictures of three different gulls which are giving me a little identification trouble. I also realized that I have some photos of gulls from last year around this time that I have yet to get conclusively identified. Rather than cram them all into one post, I think I’ll let this be the start of a series of mystery gull posts.

Unidentified Gulls