Great Glorious Gulling in San Mateo County

You knew it was coming...it was unavoidable. I don't think I've done a gull post since 2016. Is a full-blown Larid post in July appropriate? Not in the slightest, but here it is and here you are reading it. Don't worry, this should be better than a photo study of Ring-billed Gulls or some similar garbage.

The winter of 2016-2017 was quite good for California gullers. While the Ross's Gull was undoubtedly the undisputed highlight, a close second was the Black-tailed Gull that was seen in Monterey County (where Billy and I dipped the day the Ross's died) and then again in San Mateo County. That is what brought me to the mouth of Gazos Creek, where I found Terrills, Michael Park and other unidentified birders, but no Black-tailed. At least there were kittiwakes though.

Last winter was tremendous for Black-legged Kittiwakes in this part of the state, being seen from shore with regularity in many places. This was another bird I had missed entirely in 2016, but they were easy to find early this year. Seeing pelagic birds on shore really feels like cheating.

This was the second time I had dragged Billy and Annabelle (the first time in fetal form) out to dip on this Black-tailed Gull. Hopefully this event won't repeat itself again.

Luckily, kittiwakes were not the lone highlight of the day. This Lesser Black-backed Gull in Princeton Harbor (Denniston Creek Mouth) was a very nice consolation rarity. Despite their abundance in some parts of the continent, this is still a very rare bird in most of California. To give you an idea of how good the gulling was around this time, there were a minimum of 3 individual LBBGs in San Mateo County; in eBird, there is only one record in all prior years.

On another day, I lurked across the bay down to get my usual punishment at Pilarcitos Creek Mouth...this is a legendary gull spot where I have failed to see anything interesting year after year after year. This newly-arrived Allen's Humingbird was next to my car when I got out; a good omen?

I bumped into Ken Schneider, who let me know about a Glaucous Gull at the creek mouth. I arrived just as the bird peaced out to the northeast, possibly to visit one of the inland reservoirs.

I stuck around for a while, hoping something else of interest would stop in; this roost site is well-known for its high turnover of gulls. I felt the old familiar presence of rarities...but where were they? This attractive Glaucous hybrid (presumably Glaucous x Herring) dropped in to the flock, but that was not what I had on my mind.

Finally, a Vague Runt worth writing home about materialized...Laughing Gull! Like Lesser Black-backed, this is a Salton Sea specialty in California. Show me a Laughing Gull anywhere else in the state, and I will show you a damn rare bird.

Ok gull nerds...what do you think the bird in the center is? This is not a quiz, I honestly don't know. Note the bright red orbital ring, red gape, eye color, bill shape and pattern (see below as well). It superficially resembles a Herring Gull, but there are things "wrong" with it. Those are Mew Gulls in front and to the right, and a Western Gull on the left for comparison. The primaries are the typical four-year gull black with white apical spots. I did not see leg color, the bird disappeared almost immediately after I found it, flushed by wankers.

Lots of conflicting weirdness here.

You may have noticed a theme in this blog post so far...no, not the gulls, I'm talking about the shitty photos. Here is a decent kittiwake to help redeem myself. Speaking of shitty photos and redemption, let me betray a photographer's secret to all you noobs (n00bs)...if you want to convince everybody that you were born with a camera in your hand and that you are god's gift to nature photography, don't post shitty photos. Only post good ones. It's that simple. Fortunately for you and me both, I don't pretend to be a photographer, I just take photos. Some are good, most are not, but I will show it all...gross.

This kittiwake was bellowed at by an asshole Western Gull. Luckily, no harm was done.

This kittiwake demonstrated the classic pleasantness and unobtrusive nature characteristic of the species. The kittiwakes that morning were the most confiding I've seen south of Alaska.

It is also worth mentioning that at this site alone, over a couple different visits, I witnessed birders string Laughing Gull, Slaty-backed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull and Glaucous Gull. I appreciate that trying to identify rare gulls is an exercise in self-harm for many, but let's be careful out there friends.

After the unambiguous victory at Pilarcitos Creek (a first for me), I returned to Princeton Harbor to scour the Denniston Creek flock. Unambiguous success quickly turned into ambiguous success though when John Sterling and I got on this nice "Kumlien's" Iceland Gull. Note the lack of a tail band, which the bird was happy to display repeatedly.

The identification of this bird was actually not the ambiguous thing for once - it even has the dark "arrowheads" on the primaries, which don't tend to persist with a lot of wear. It was the classification that was problematic. At the time, rumor had it that Iceland Gull and Thayer's Gull were to be lumped in some fashion, a rumor which proved to be true...the AOS not only lumped them, it smashed the Kumlien's subspecies into oblivion. So, instead of this being a kumlieni Iceland Gull (a Bird Police species in California), officially this bird is now considered an intergrade between the thayeri and glaucoides subspecieseseseseseseses of Iceland Gull.

That's it on the left, showing the tail and wing pattern one would expect on a kumlieni thayeri x glaucoides intergrade. So for now I have put this bird on the shelf, no point in sending it to the Bird Police.

Here is a somewhat bleached Iceland Gull (formerly known as Thayer's...crap, this is going to take some getting used to) with a very white base color, but still showing the contrasting dark secondaries and darker primaries typical of thayeri.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I spent a great deal of time looking for Slaty-backed Gulls in February and early March without success, but at least I had some other good birds to show for it. The San Mateo County coast offers some of the best gulling in the Lower 48, hopefully next winter can come close to matching the glory of the last. 

Birding Is Hard: Return of the Gulls

Glaucous-winged Gulls, and their associated hybrids, are abundant in the bay area during the winter months. The most straightforward ones to ID look something like this; dark eye, pale bill, dark/barred (as opposed to streaked) hood, and pleasantly pale primaries. All photos from this post were taken at Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline, San Leandro, CA.

Here in the bay area, November is typically the month where birders begin looking at gulls again. I never look forward to this. By this time, I typically have not been obsessively looking at gulls since March, and my Larid skills have gotten a bit rusty. Luckily, November is generally not a great month for vagrant gulls (although Slaty-backed has shown up this early), so it's good to get my inner Gull Machine (a large part of my brain that is devoted to doing nothing but process gull identifications) firing on all cylinders again.

I hate gulls, but I just can't help myself. I must look at them. They demand my attention. I want the glory, the fame, and the sex of finding the state's second Great Black-backed Gull, or another precious Black-tailed Gull. I want to be able to competently discuss such obscure identification features that if I try to describe them to another birder, their eyes will just glaze over in utter horror and confusion...and you know what? I'm well on my way there, but unfortunately many birders are still able to understand what I am talking about, gulls are still frustrating to identify, and birding is still hard...and that is why I fail.

Thayer's Gulls are back; this is the first adult I've seen this year. Note how tiny it is compared to the big hybrid gull in the background. Speaking of the hybrid (note the almost-but-not-quite black primaries), it's clearly part Glaucous-winged, but I'm not sure who the other parent is. It's shaped like a classic Glaucous-winged X Western but the way the mottling/streaking (strottling?) looks on the head makes me wonder if Herring genes are in there. I don't know, you tell me...isn't birding hard?

Check out the massive white apical spots on this bird. Lookin' sharp.

My, what an appealing wing pattern you have Thayer's Gull. This is a pale-eyed Thayer's Gull, which are not uncommon locally.

The adult gulls here are still molting in their new primaries; check out p10 coming in on the leading edge of the wing, and how far it has to go before it's fully grown in. Wonderfully vivid feet on this bird, which is to be expected.

For more on Thayer's Gull ID, or if seeing a bunch of Thayer's Gull pictures is what gets you going, be sure to check out my sprawling Thayer's Gull post from earlier this year.

Shortly after the adult Thayer's Gull flew off, I spied this bird bathing in the same area. It looked rather similar...pale eye, heavily-marked head (not streaky like a Herring), relatively small...another Thayer's?

Hmm...there's no mirror on p9, which is highly indicative of Herring Gulls in the western U.S. And the mottled head is starting to look crosshatched, a very Glaucous-winged trait.

And now the bird seems pretty pale on the underwings...not dissimilar to a Thayer's. So if a gull has a wing pattern that looks like a Thayer's from below but a Herring Gull from above, what is it?

If you guessed that this bird was a Glaucous-winged X Herring Gull hybrid, I would wager that you are correct. If you ask me, this hybrid combination resembles Thayer's Gull more than any other. Fortunately, the "Cook Inlet Gull" is common here during the winter and provide ample opportunities for study. Unfortunately, the "Cook Inlet Gull" is common here during the winter months and I am forced to waste countless hours looking at them trying to figure out what the hell they are.

I only got to look at this bird very briefly in flight, and even more briefly on the water. At first glance I assumed this would be a 2nd-cycle Glaucous-winged X Herring Gull, but with my short look at the bird on the water and looking at these photos now, it appears to be Glaucous X Herring. Nelson's Gulls can be challenging to track down around here (for me, anyway), so this turned out to be a pretty nice bird.

Though a bit dark, I think if you took off this bird's head and attached it to a Glaucous Gull torso, it would look right at home.

Luckily, Bonaparte's Gulls are attractive and don't want to grind cloacas with all their closest relatives. And for that, Bonaparte's Gulls, I thank you.

Please Don't Pray For Me, I Get By

An existential Ring-necked Duck ponders its reflection. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

Wow. The whole year list thing has really stalled. I've gone a whole month without adding a single bird. Of course, thats easy to do when you refuse to chase anything simply for the sake of putting it on your year list. This is borne out of three (3) factors: laziness, gas-wasting guilt, and my ceasing to update my county lists in California. If I did not suffer from these ailments, I would be motivated to drive and bird a lot more. But as things stand....no regrets! 

Western Bluebird. Little more needs to be said. Morro Bay, CA.

Right now, I'm at 387 or so, which is really modest. This includes birding in coastal California, southeast Arizona, the northern end of the Gulf of California (yes, thats Mexico), and coastal/offshore Alaska. Basically, I'll be happy just getting to 400. I'm not really competing with anyone (all my other nerd-friends keeping track have much higher totals), and no one will fault me with taking quality over quantity this year. We've already discussed this, but I really like talking about it, so we will do so again. For example, last year the only new shorebird I saw was Upland Sandpiper (PENNSYLVANIAFTW!!!). This year, its Common Sandpiper, Long-toed Stint, Red-necked Stint, Wood Sandpiper....not bad, eh? Gotta love them Eurasian pipers.

A probable Glaucous X Herring Gull. They are best identified by their love of fried chicken. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

Here in San Francisco, there's not much to add. There's an Indigo Bunting at Golden Gate Park, a Northern Parula at Ferry Park, a Clapper Rail at Heron Head Park....I don't know. I can't seem to get excited about them, though I have a deep and powerful love for all these species. My chasing instinct appears to be waning. But fear not BB&B fans, December will hold a flurry of birding....its up to Arcata this week for the Brown Shrike and other avian goodness, and I think I'll get some birding done in southern California later this month. I'm looking forward to it.

A Savannah Sparrow lurks. Morro Bay, CA.

So all in all, the Y2K10 list is going to be heavy on region-specific specialties (particularly southeastern Arizona birds and Aleutian Island seabirds and migrants) and totally lacking in birds that are relatively widespread and easy to see in a lot of places (i.e. American Redstart, Clark's Nutcracker, things like that). I think I'll end up about where I did last year actually (although I don't have a number for that), It's fine. Everything's fine. I'm not one to jump the shark. That said, this is all boring, dorky power-birder stuff, so I'll quit while I'm ahead. Toodles!

PS For more on guilt-free Big Years, check out Keith Hansen's blog here and Jim Royer's blog here! They've got some beefy totals for 2010, and are definitely on to something.

This pair of Horned Grebes have made the journey to the end of East Bay. Berkeley, CA.