|
Thayer's Gull
Larus thayeri
|
I've wanted a Thayer's gull since I started birding. But everytime I was with a really really skilled birder and they would say "Thayer Gull", they would start to retract and hedge...If they couldn't tell, how the h could I?
Finally. My definitive, lifer Thayer's gull - part of my gull id class - woohoo!!! I was so unsure of the id at first I kept asking the instructor Lisa Hug, "ok, it's the 6th from the right, right? right?"...
Thayer's key field mark is "bubble-gum pink" legs. Leg colors (in adults) is the first thing Lisa keys on. Well this Thayer has ever so slightly different pink legs than the Western Gull behind it. But look at the difference in wing color - the western's mantle is much darker.
And so I have been led into the that bizarre nether grey world that my friend Matthew Dodder calls "Gulltone" (like Pantone™). My only consolation is that the Thayer's really does have a "dovish head" (which means it looks like a pigeon. Doh!) and it's smaller. I might actually be able to ID a Thayer now. Well at least an adult one.
|
|
Focal length: 700 mm
fStop: 7
ISO: 400
Shutter Speed: 1/4000 sec.
|
|
Point Reyes, CA - Drakes Beach
|
|
Dec 6, 2009
|
|
