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Posted by Nick Lund on 21:46:30 03/09/11
Hi everyone-
Doug Hitchcox and I, two birders visiting south Florida from Maine, found a juvenile/first year white-winged gull - likely an Iceland or Thayer's - roosting with Herring Gulls on Bush Key yesterday afternoon. We watched the bird at a great distance from the top of Fort Jefferson and from the beach looking onto Bush Key and we able to obtain some distant, unsatisfying pictures.
The bird was smudgy white from head to primaries with pink legs. We were clearly able to see the bird's bill - pink base fading quickly into black - a factor that helped lead us to rule out Glaucous Gull. The size and structure of the bird gave us trouble, as it stayed partly hidden most of the time. At times it appeared both larger and smaller than the surrounding Herrings (the photos give it a deep-bellied appearance that we did not observe).
We let the rangers on the island know that there was an interesting bird around, and hopefully they'll re-find it and come up with some better pictures or an identification.
Two pictures can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhitchcox/5513381215/in/photostream/
The bird in question is shown standing under the white arrow in the first picture and sitting (head obscured, but smudgy white primaries showing) in the second. We'd appreciate any comments.
Also notable (to us, anyway!) on the islands were Hooded Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, Am. Redstart, Masked and Brown Boobies, Sooty Terns, and Brown Noddy.
Good Birding,
Nick Lund and Doug Hitchcox
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