Dick & Jean Hoffman - the local bird scene - 2005 Gulls

This gull caught our eye when not much was happening at E. 72nd. The pale upper tail coverts and the white mottling of the mantle made it very interesting and the dark upper coverts of the secondaries (giving the double barred effect on the wings) was unusual for a Herring Gull. The excellent flight shots Dick got show all its features including the unfortunate pale inner primaries which are consistent with Herring Gull but not the hoped for Lesser Black-backed Gull. The bi-colored bill is also not a feature of first winter Lesser Black-back. This is a reminder of the great variability of first winter (and other) plumages of Herring Gull to be found in Cleveland.

These photos are from scanned images of the original slides and have not been altered other than to crop and reduce their size. All photos copyright © 2005 Dick Hoffman, all rights reserved.