The Scene: Scanning the waves across the street from my beach house, looking at scoters and hoping for alcids.
The Bird: A pale cream gull, soaring by on the wind.
The ID: First cycle gull, with an all dark bill. Glaucous would have more pink on the bill, and be bulkier, as per my new Birds of Europe guide.
The Lifer: Iceland Gull
Merry Christmas and good birding!
Congrats, Eamon!
ReplyDeleteIceland Gull has been surprisingly scarce this fall/winter.
-Alex
Thanks. Yeah, I haven't seen too many reports of them, so I guess I was luck to stumble upon this one. The snow cut short my Massachusetts birding, so it was good to get a lifer out of it anyway.
ReplyDeleteEamon