[Birdnet] six gulls at LeeKay

[L. D. Giddings]

Dennis Shirley and I arrived at LeeKay ponds at about 11:40 a.m. and
stayed until about 3:30 p.m. The western gull was spotted by Dennis
almost at once in the company of a small group of gulls (75-100 birds)
near the east end of the west pond, near the small finger of land that
pokes out into the pond from the south bank. The bird stuck around until
1:29 p.m., five minutes before Bryan Shirley arrived. While we were
watching it and waiting for Bryan, Dennis spotted a glaucous gull, also
in this same small flock of gulls, which stuck around, sleeping on the
ice and preening, until around 3:30 p.m. And the much discussed mystery
Thay-landic gull also showed up and hung around for several hours. On
several occasions one could see the western, glaucous, Thay-landic,
California, ring-billed, and herring gulls in the same spotting scope
field of vision at the same time.

Aside from the gulls the western pond was only sporting a few mallards,
again, all at the east end of the pond. A flock of at least 200 Canada
geese fed on the grassy hillside south of the western pond.

The eastern pond was choked with several thousand gulls, Tim's
canvasbacks, common goldeneyes, a redhead, a ruddy duck, more mallards,
and a few Canada geese. There was what appeared to be a second year
glaucous gull on the edge of ice, but the rest of the gulls seemed to be
the three common Utah winter gulls - herring, ring-billed, and
California.

A word about the western gull for anyone who plans to look for it. While
the bird is distinctly darker than average herring and California gulls,
there were a small number of each that were about as dark as the western
gull. It would be understandably easy for even an experienced birder to
mis-identify one of these darkish gulls as the western gull. This is why
photographs are so important, especially for a first record. Should you
decide to look for it you will definitely need a scope. Binoculars by
themselves will not be enough to help you note the subtle differences
that make it possible to differentiate between the western gull and the
dark herring gulls we saw. And you will need the discipline and the
patience to refrain from jumping to conclusions as to what it is you're
actually looking at. Be careful. And good luck.

Lu Giddings
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