No Common Gull
Yesterday I took the B41 out to Marine Park to look for the European Common Gull that had been spotted there on Sunday and Monday. There were hundreds of Ring-billed Gulls, at least a couple of Herring Gulls, one or two Great Black-backed Gulls, but the Common Gull was not found; or if it was found nobody recognized it. It looks a lot like this much more common Ring-billed Gull:
However, there were several observers out there much more experienced than me including one member of the New York State Avian Records Committee and one person baiting the gulls with donuts (Boston Creme may not have been the best choice), so I suspect if it was present it would have been identified. It likely is somewhere in the area, but even if it’s not sitting on the middle of an uninhabited island in Jamaica Bay, it could be on any of thousands of roofs, hundreds of parking lots, or dozens of fields so I’ll just have to wait and hope someone else reports it.
Even if I don’t get it now, I should be able to find some of the West Coast subspecies in San Francisco in May. I should have gotten it on my trip to the California coast last month, but I wasn’t looking for it and doubtless overlooked over many individuals as just another Ring-billed Gull.
Anyway, it was a nice day nonetheless and I saw a little over twenty species including three year birds:
- Brant
- American Black Duck
- Mallard
- Greater Scaup
- Bufflehead
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Ring-billed Gull
- Herring Gull
- Great Black-backed Gull
- Rock Pigeon
- Northern Flicker
- American Crow
- Fish Crow
- American Robin
- European Starling
- Chipping Sparrow
- Song Sparrow
- Northern Cardinal
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- House Sparrow
