Saturday, January 20, 2018

Mega gull at Prospect Lake

Master birder Sean Sime pulled out a really good gull ,a mega find for Prospect this early afternoon with MEW/COMMON GULL.

Initially identified as Common the European subspecies it's now believed by Sean to be the northwestern North American subspecies.

The Mew Gull hung out in the mostly Ringbilleds gull flock ~200 ft from the western shoreline of Prospect Lake. It stayed there for about an hour affording excellent looks for the small flash mob . This species is very likely Prospects first record.



To distinguish the Mew from likewise Ringbilleds,look at the thinner darker pale yellow bill with no ring band. Also there's a characteristic white tertial patch on its back..

The gull flew out about 220.

See the previous post of the bird on Twitter link. Mike Yuan photo