[EBB Sightings] Franklin's Gull on Saturday afternoon, 4/30
[EBB Sightings] Franklin's Gull on Saturday afternoon, 4/30
Joseph Morlan
Sun May 01 12:01:00 PDT 2005
Previous Message: [EBB Sightings] Franklin's Gull on Saturday afternoon, 4/30
Next Message: [EBB Sightings] 2 answers
« Back to Month
« Back to Archive List
On Sun, 01 May 2005 11:03:23 -0700, Hilary Powers
wrote:
>Eugenia Larson wrote:
>> As reported, the Franklin's Gull was at Lake Merritt on Saturday
>> afternoon, April 30th. ... It is a full adult with pinkish wash on
>> the breast.
>Thanks for the picture! It confirms what I thought - this gull's beak is
>a whole lot darker than the one Sibley pictures. Individual variation?
>Subspecies? Bad print job in my book?
It looks very much like the bird I saw in San Francisco last weekend. The
red on its bill was also barely visible.
Another photo at:
http://fog.ccsf.edu/~jmorlan/frgu.htm
...seems to show a dark bill.
I suspect the bright red bill shown in some field guides may be ephemeral
and perhaps only at the height of the breeding season. A similar
phenomenon is known to occur with the bill of Roseate Tern.
--
Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA 94044 jmorlan (at) ccsf.org
Birding Classes in SF start Feb.8 http://fog.ccsf.edu/~jmorlan/
California Bird Records Committee http://www.wfo-cbrc.org/cbrc/
« Back to Month
« Back to Archive List