[mou] Lesser Black-backed Gull at Black Dog Lake

[Drewbec at aol.com]

This evening between 6:15 and 6:35 I observed a Lesser Black-backed Gull on  
the far West end of Black Dog Lake, on the lake and the concrete pipe and  
castings that extend outward from the South shore. As the plumage was a little  
unusual, I'll only refer to it as a "sub-adult" type bird. The bill wasn't as  
golden yellow as on a full adult bird, and retained a black spot on the gonys. 
 The head was white but coarsely streaked with brownish gray, heaviest at the 
 base of the neck in back. There was a dark spot in front of the pale yellow 
eye.  The mantle wasn't as dark as some birds I've seen previously, and was 
suggestive  of the graellsii subspecies. It was distinctly darker mantled than 
any  Ring-billed Gull in side by side comparison. The wings showed all dark at  
the tips of p8-10. P1-7 were white tipped, and the white may have extended 
into  the tips of the secondaries closest to p1. However, there was mostly no 
white  edge to the secondaries. I didn't notice any brownish coloring in the 
dark gray  wing feathers. The tail and rump appeared clean white, at least from 
the angles  that I could see. The legs appeared to be a yellowish tan. In size, 
it was  larger than all of the RBGU's. Once it flew back to the concrete, I 
was able to  compare it with the only Herring Gull present, and it was 
definitely smaller in  size to that species as well. When I studied the head shape, 
the bird was  thrashing about bathing, and seemed flat headed on the crown. That 
probably  accounted for the odd shape, as the bird was repeatedly submerging 
its head  underwater.
 
So, the Fall gulling season begins! What will be found this year???
 
Drew Smith
Eagan, Dakota county



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