Gulls Gulls Gulls Gulls Gulls

An Iceland Gull doing something weird. All photographs today are from Fort Baker, Sausalito, CA.

WARNING: This is a full-on gull post. It will appeal to no one but gull fetishists. If you are larophobic, go away! But if you consider yourself a leading light in gull identification, feel free to throw in your two cents on any of the bizarre birds below.

Iceland Gull. So dainty. And white. And pink-billed. And dainty. AND RARE. Jesus Christ! So rare!

Iceland (back) and Thayer's Gulls. The Iceland is slimmer and smaller than Thayer's, and longer-winged. Some would even say...daintier. If you didn't catch it before, I have more photos of this bird up over here.

Well...here is a bird that looks like an Iceland Gull, but I reckon it's a super bleached Thayer's. That's a serious tail band. What do ya'll think? It seems like people have been claiming to find Iceland Gulls up and down the state for the past several weeks, including at Fort Baker, and possibly even including this bird...I am skeptical. No offense. There are a lot of bleached birds around, making them appear far whiter than they did a few months ago.

Some folks who know their gulls better than me got me on this bird....they were calling it a possible Vega Gull. We did see it fly....it had a giant, thick black tail band, which is not a good mark for Vega Gull as far as I know...if anyone has any legit input on this bird, I'd love to hear it.

A pale-eyed second-cycle Thayer's. Not a plumage I see a lot.

A big beefy hybrid of some sort. Herring X Glaucous-winged?

Another awful hybrid. Is this just a super bleached Western X Glaucous-winged? WTF????

Herring (rear) and Thayer's Gulls.

Mew Gulls are a relief to look at compared to everything else, as they are easy to identify.

There have been a lot of gulls down there. It was scary.

It's Just Another Sunny Day Here In The Land Of Babylon

One of the Bar-tailed Godwits that visited Buldir Island. This species is known for its super-godwit ability of shrinking their guts to save weight on their long migrations.

Fresh. That's the word to use here. You want to forage on the freshness of my blog. I get that, I totally get it. Well, I'll keep it garden fresh for you today. These are all species that have never been featured on BB&B. So feast your eyes, minds and hearts.

Of course, you can only go so far with that word. It's not exactly...fresh...anymore. If any adjective is repeated many times on the Beastie Boys' Licensed To Ill, you really shouldn't be throwing it around unless you know exactly what youre doing. For reals.

Oh yeah, if you pick up the new National Geographic ("Mysteries of Great Migrations"/November 2010), look at the page of bird and bat kills on pages 44-45. When I was working for Bat Conservation International in Pennsylvania, NattyGeo sent out a photographer to check out what we were doing with our wind turbine study....I guess this shot is the one print picture we'll get out of it. Oh well, still pretty cool (except all the death, of course).

At any rate, here's some birds from far-flung areas of the States, and a tarantula for some reason. Enjoy!

So, look. I'm not a true larophile. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. This second-year (cycle? whatever) "Herring" Gull spent the summer with us on Buldir Island. To my knowledge, there are no records of the American smithsonianus Herring Gull in the western Aleutians, (vegae occurs on the regular) so I suspect this may be a "Vega" Gull. Do ya'll have any thoughts on this? I've got a lot more pictures of this bird.

A female Purple Martin with a meal. It's a bug's life. Photographed at Lake Hefner,Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Whimbrel. If it was a female, it would be called a Whimbrella. Not really though. Digiscoped at Heron Head Park, San Francisco, CA.

Kitty.