It is the bill color that was throwing some of us - it seemed too
uniformly dark for a first winter Ring-billed Gull which pushed some
of us to the dark side, as it were. The bill color, however, is
consistent with delayed bill color acquisition in Ring-billed Gulls.
For my part, I wish I had paid more attention to overall size when I
had more mature Ring-billed Gulls to compare it to.
The real problem in our area is that we don't get enough practice with
enough species. When I lived in the Pacific Northwest, I was pretty
solid on a wide variety of gulls ... and I was astonished to see how
quickly I got rusty when I moved to Lubbock.
Regards; Anthony Hewetson
On Thu, Nov 11, 2021 at 8:48 PM Robert C. Lee <robertclee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
So…ALL of us were wrong! 🤕 😆
Then that is juvenile plumage, not 1st winter?
On Nov 11, 2021, at 7:29 PM, Joe Cochran <JCochran2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
After getting input from some reviewers with a LOT more experience with Gulls
than me the conclusion is that both sightings were Ring-billed Gulls. Thanks
to everyone for your input!
From: leasbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <leasbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of Joe Cochran
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2021 12:21 PM
To: leasbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [leasbirds] Gull at Dupree Park
I believe the same gull I had at Leroy Elmore yesterday was at Dupree Park
today. I’m still leaning toward Lesser Black-baked Gull. Note that one of
the pictures has Ring-billed Gulls in the background for size comparison.
What do you think??