wednesday, january 20

today at noon, after three straight days of searching through hundreds, if not thousands of gulls, in horrible weather at robb field and mission bay, i finally found something new: an immature LAUGHING GULL. i had just about given up for the day when i decided to stop by fiesta island to check out some places where i know large numbers of gulls congregate. this guy was noticeably smaller than all the RING BILLED, CALIFORNIA, and WESTERN GULLs surrounding it. it also had characteristic black legs and bill, white eyelids, and dark feathers on the back of the neck and head that are less blotchy, and more uniform than those on most other winter plumaged gulls. below is a picture of the same individual i saw today, taken at an earlier date, by matt sadowski. this bird has been present for about a week now at mission bay.



also, this is bird is a 'lifer' for me. which is nice...