Iceland Gull in St. Louis County
2011-02-12

'Rare Regular' in Minnesota

Composite image of second-cycle Iceland/Thayer's Gull at Canal Park, Duluth, 12 February 2011. Superficially resembling an Iceland Gull, in flight images show a faint secondary bar and darker markings on the outer webs of p5-p10. On the settled bird, the folded primaries are darker than the upper wing-coverts and tertials. These features suggest introgression with Thayer's Gull and represents one of several such intergrades in the Twin Ports this fall and winter. This appears to be the imdividual labeled "ICGU-THGU second-cycle #three" at Karl Bardon's website. To see four more images of this bird, which was first found by Karl 30 January 2011, please go to http://www.pbase.com/karlbardon/duluthsuperior_gulls_20102011 and look for this bird within the "Iceland Gulls 2010-2011" collection.

Peder H. Svingen