[Birdtalk] Gulls Galore and a Few Finches more!

[Tim Avery]

A huge thanks to Kris Purdy for posting to birdnet for Dave Slager and I this morning as we stood freezing at Lee Kay looking through the gulls!

Dave and I started off the morning at Alta to look for Rosy-Finches.  I was prepared for a long wait, or no finches at all, as per my 2 trips last year.  But we were pleasantly surprised as we pulled up to the Hames house and there was a large flock of Rosy-Finches staging in the trees just off the road west of the house.  WE parked and got good looks at the birds before the Hame's dog came into view and the birds took off to the west.  I told Dave I knew of another feeder we could check, so we drove over to The View Condo's, where sure enough the birds were feeding at the feeders to the West of the View.  This is private property and there is literally no public parking.  The feeders are out of view, so you can only see the birds in the trees here.  If you would like directions to The View, let me know.

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/gcrf_01.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/brfi_01.jpg

Dave counted and estimated around 180 Rosy-Finches in all, with the make up being almost 8 to 1 in favor of Gray-crowned, with only around 20 Black Rosy-Finches around.  Of the 150 or so GCRF, the ratio was nearly 3 to 1 in favor of Hepburn's race to Interior race.  We got great looks and headed back to the inversions filled valley for the gulls.

As we pulled dup to Lee Kay we were delighted at the pack of around 1500 gulls on the main pond.  In the first 20 to 30 minutes we were treated to a plethora of Gulls as noted below:

1 WESTERN GULL (3rd Winter bird that has been around since December 27th)
1 GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL (1st winter bird we saw for about 2 minutes before the gulls flew, Dave wasn't sure of the ID afterwards, but the picture I got seems to reflect this ID)
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/gwgu_01.jpg
3 GLAUCOUS GULLS (1-1st winter, 1-2nd winter, 1-adult) **Beautiful Birds!!!**
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/glgu_02.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/glgu_03.jpg
1 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL (1 apparent 1st winter, I am awaiting some responses form ID frontiers, as this bird was in bad light, but appeared to have the right mix of features)
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/lbbg_03.jpg
1 Thayer's Gull (1st Winter bird that was paler than average, not the same bird as the "Thaylandic" based off a comparison of pictures and differences in plumage) I was surprised at the lack of Thayer's today!
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/thgu_02.jpg
100 Herring Gulls
300 Ring-billed Gulls
1100 California Gulls
1 apparent "Nelson's" Gull (2nd winter bird hybrid between Glaucous and Herring Gull)

The gulls were for the most part rather close to the road on the main pond and gave great viewing opportunities.

Good Birding

Tim

http://www.timaverybirding.com
http://www.birdtography.com 
Salt Lake City, Utah

"I cannot help but think a curious event is this life of mine."
- John James Audubon
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