Friday, January 28, 2022

BAT Pier Nelson's gull ( hybrid)

Herring x Glaucous Gull (hybrid) (Larus argentatus x hyperboreus) (1)
- Reported Jan 28, 2022 09:12 by Jeff Gramm
- Brooklyn Army Terminal Pier 4, Kings, New York
- Map: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&q=40.646519,-74.026074&ll=40.646519,-74.026074
- Checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S101596424
- Media: 10 Photos
- Comments: "Large pale gull with intermediate characteristics. Jeff Gramm and I saw Gabriel Willow's report of an imm. Glaucous Gull from the Army Terminal Pier and decided to try our luck. We quickly got onto a large pale gull hanging around the pilings near the police boat parking area at the south end of the boardwalk. Closer looks revealed dark primary feathers and a dark subterminal band in flight, as well as a much thinner bill than I would expect from Glaucous, as well as a not quite sufficiently bullish "steroidal" head. I personally have no prior experience with "Nelson's" gulls, but after consulting ours and other photographs we agreed that this was most likely what we were looking at. Although it seems quite a surprising coincidence, this is NOT the bird that Gabriel reported an hour or so before we got to the pier. "His" bird, in his excellent photographs, has the pristine white primary tips we couldn't find on ours!"