Iceland Gull in St. Louis County
2013-11-15

'Rare Regular' in Minnesota

Adult "Kumlien's" Iceland Gull (Larus glaucoides kumlieni) at Canal Park, Duluth, 15 November 2013. This bird was discovered by Jan & Larry Kraemer shortly after 1:00 PM and apparently disappeared until about 4:00 PM, when Mike Hendrickson and I managed to obtain some backlit photos in the fading afternoon light. Note its petite bill, yellow irides, rounded head shape, and gray (not black) pigment in its outer primaries. The outermost primary (p10) has just started to emerge and p9 has not fully lengthened, so the dorsal wing tip looked mostly whitish in flight. It's still possible to discern the emerging pattern of a white terminal mirror on p10 and a white sub-terminal mirror on p9 extending across the outer web. Absent or molting primaries may create confusing wing tip patterns in gulls during pre-basic molt in late summer and fall, and can lead to misidentifications of adult Herring Gulls as Thayer's, and adult Thayer's Gulls as Kumlien's. More images of this bird can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/cochon/sets/72157637862231894/

Peder H. Svingen