Part 2: All Kinds of Gulls on Cape Ann. Iceland Gull in Turner's Falls in MA

Looking at Gulls on Niles Pond, Gloucester

I like photographing gulls in the winter because that's when they congregate and allow you to come fairly close, but when I trying to guess their ages I often just throw my hands up. Looking later at my photographs, Howell's and Dunn's Gulls of the Americas comes in handy.


They are quite fearless, taking flight only if they see a raptor in the vicinity. We saw plenty of gulls on our trip, most of them on the far side of frozen Niles Pond  sleeping or preening. I took hundreds of photograph, why I am not sure, because checking the images on screen on my camera I could easily see that none were sharp enough to be of any use. Still, hope against hope,  the blue sky and the warm sun made the scene look so pretty with the long row of gulls on the blue ice in front of a curtain of buff-colored reeds.

On day 2 when we revisited the site I broke up a muffin saved from breakfast and tossed the pieces  on the ice. i am not good at throwing, no further than a couple of feet from the shore. At first nothing happened, then finally a gull flew overhead, saw the bread landed at a cautious distance. A few others followed. Finally a couple of Ring-billed Gulls ventured closer and picked up pieces of the muffin.

 It was quite slippery and the gulls kept sliding around on the ice.

Notice the stuffed cheeks

Most of the gulls that we saw were American Herring Gulls (AHG), Ring-billed Gulls (RBG) and Great Black-backed Gulls (GBG). Here are some photos of the AHG and the GBG:

Adult AHG and two immature GBGs

Adult RBG in front and immature GBG in the back

Mixed Group on Niles Pond. Most of these were AHGs of various ages. There are two adult GBG.

I wasn't sure about the ID the gull with the pink legs and the black-tipped bill. Here is a close-up, unfortunately not very sharp:

AHG, probably 2nd winter

The bill seemed to me uncharacteristically small for an AHG.  Also the dove-like head and expression did not jive with my image of an AHG. I posted the photo on the iD Forum on birdforum.net.  The responses I got confirmed that this was just an immature AHG; hoping for something more interesting was just wishful thinking. Apparently there is quite a range of bill sizes among the immature AHG.  

Adult AHG

First winter GBG

Adult GBG

We also saw an Iceland Gull on Niles Pond but it was too far away for my camera. This past Sunday I drove to Unity Park in Turner's Falls in MA where gulls often congregate near the shore of the CT River. I was fortunate. Among them was a first winter Iceland Gull. We usually see one or two juveniles every winter. Adults rarely travel this far south.

I love that sweet expression - typical for an immature Iceland Gulls.

First winter Iceland Gull in front on the left and a second cycle AHG on the right

These photos are of an immature Glaucous Gull on the breakwater at Gloucester harbor, were taken a couple of years ago. It's a sturdy large gull, larger than an Iceland G, and has a pink bill with a black tip.

I had taken so many photos in RAW format that I ran out of space on my 8 GB card. I went back to my car for a spare 2 GB card which I filledl. When I tried to download the photos at home however I kept getting the question whether I wanted to reformat the card. Bad sign! No photos! I remembered the software I had bought from Seagate for when I had my Seagate hard drive disaster last October.  It worked - I got all my photos back! I threw out the card and put another spare one into my gear bag rather than the car where it would be exposed to such variable temperatures.

It's still freezing here! Hope it's less extreme where you are. Happy birding!

Thanks for visiting. I am always thrilled to receive your comments and welcome any corrections or suggestions.

Waterfowl on Plum Island

My trip to Plum Island last Saturday was somewhat marred by a cold wind, sweeping down the beach and swirling up clouds of fine sand, which kept me from walking to Sandy Point, or anywhere else on the beach. In addition I had arrived at  low tide, as high tide occurred too early for me, around 5 AM, and again 12 hours later in the afternoon.

Sanderlings and Dunlins were down on the beach close to the water's edge too far for my camera and lens to get a good shot. I asked a birder with a scope whether he had seen any Red Knots "No, just Sanderlings and Dunlins'' and pointing to a boat not far off shore:,"some scoters there", but since the men in the boat were hunters, I suspect those ducks scattered about the boat were most likely decoys. 

The sheltered ponds and marshes behind the dunes were fairly calm. 

American Coot 

Green-winged Teal

Northern Pintails

Male Gadwall above, female below

The majority of ducks that I saw were American Wigeons, also call "Baldpate" for obvious reasons, or "Poacher" because, not being strong divers, they pilfer plants and roots dragged up from the bottom by other ducks. They have strong beaks which allows them also to graze on dry land like geese. 

Male Wigeon

Three males and one female Wigeon

Male Wigeon

A pair of male and female Wigeons

American  Wigeon summer and winter distribution  (Birds of North America)

I had a quick lunch in my car while watching two American Crows and a Ring-billed Gull squabble over food.

November days are short and before you know it the afternoon light is waning. Time to drive home. A five hour round trip and $50 in gas, was it worth it? I wished I could have timed my visit for high tide, and maybe a little less wind would have been nice. But I got two lifers that made it worth it: the Wigeon and a Barnacle Goose (see previous post)

Cheers! Good Birding.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Thanks for your visit and come by again!

Please leave a comment.

A Peaceful Evening on the River