Bird of the Week – Glaucous-winged Gull
WC is an unabashed Laridophile, a gull lover. And in coastal Alaska, one of the most common Alaska gulls is the Glaucous-winged Gull.
Glaucous-winged Gull, Resurrection Bay
The Glaucous-winged is a four-year gull, meaning it takes four years to reach maturity. Each year, each young bird goes through at least two different plumages, as do adults. So you have at least eight different-looking gulls, that are all Glaucous-winged. It can make gull identification a challenge.
Adult breeding Glaucous-winged birds are fairly straightforward: a large gull, with no black in the wings or tail, and medium grey wings. Hard core birders also note the small white “mirrors” in the tips of the wings, the first and second primaries.
For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.
magnificent put up, very informative. I’m wondering why the opposite specialists
of this sector do not notice this. You must continue your writing.
I’m sure, you have a huge readers’ base already!
It was surprising to me, after moving to Eastern Interior of Alaska, to see sea gulls hanging around the parking lots. I had always associated sea gulls with living around the sea. Sometimes the air here will smell like the ocean. I now know the gulls in the interior are called herring gulls.
“Sea Gulls” ride the warm moist Gulf Coast breezes inland. I’ve seen them in western Kansas. I’m not supprised to see them anywhere they cab source food.
Snowgrift Snoozie tells the NRA that if she were Potus(excuse while I die laffin’) she would baptize Muslims by waterboarding them. And I’m gonna sprout wings like a little angel and fly away.
I don’t know the name(s) of the gulls, but formerly at Candlestick park, and now at Pac-Bell, at 10 pm, the stadium is subjected to a flying invasion of gulls. Literally hundreds show up towards the end of the game in order to snack on popcorn, hot dog remains, dropped chicken wings and sundry leftovers. the spectators hide under blankets and small umbrellas to protect themselves from the bombardment of white gooey matter which descends from the skies. Some think this bombardment becomes more intense when the game goes into extra innings. I’m surprised that there hasn’t been a gull death from a fly ball ; but as they swirl over the seats rather than over the field, this just may not happen. Visions of Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, The Birds, always come to mind when Isee the gulls arrive….
Western Gulls. Infamously inclined to human food. I’ve seen them take a hot dog from a small child.
/WC
Mag o’ my heart-this travel/birding guide is specially for you if you ever decide to go to Arizona and look for Hummingbirds. With my compliments—http://www.sdakotabirds.com/feathers_and_folly/?p=2217
Plus I arranged (telekinetics) to have Arizona set aside over 100 thousand acres of critical Jaguar habitat and pissed off a bunch of NRA boosters who won’t be able to hunt there. Fine job all around,what? 🙂 🙂
http://www.sdakotabirds.com/feathers_and_folly/?p=2217 See if this link works.
C’mon Flatters. I’ve used up my quota of iowa gull stories. I’d like to hear from the rest of you before I turn out the lights. It is nearly bedtime in iowa.
So you got Glaucous -winged Gulls,raucous crows,rufous hummigbirds and doofus wingnuts. Which group is not like the other three?
Looks like the gulls we see here in the Fall. They flock to combined soybean fields for some reason. Don’t ever recall seeing any anchovies or sardines swimming in the fields.
Interesting about the plumage changes – I knew these birds go through a couple of costumes before adulthood, but I didn’t realize they had 8 outfits in the closet!
Juvenile mew gulls have some astonishingly beautiful plumage, especially when seen with their wings spread – got any photos of them?