Area megas: Ivory Gull and Common Crane!

It's been a wild week for the Colorado River below the Grand Canyon.

Two days ago (January 16), the news came in that an Ivory Gull had been photographed along the Colorado River somewhere near Willow Beach, but it had a broken wing and the report was a few weeks old.  I held out hope that it might be loafing at Willow Beach eating fish scraps, but in fact it was several miles below Willow Beach, on a small (likely ephemeral) sand bar, and it was photographed December 30--nothing encouraging about its continued survival or any likelihood of ever refinding it.

Still, this is an amazing first state record if accepted by the ABC! It's so fortunate that the observers, who I gather were not birders, thought to photograph the bird and send them to Andrew Core. Check out the stunning photos here!

Three days ago (January 15), Norman Parrish visited Overton WMA near the north end of the Overton Arm of Lake Mead and photographed a Common Crane! Carl Lundblad got the word out, and it was seen two days later by Rick Fridell, who posted early that it was indeed a Common Crane and still present. David and I debated for about 30 seconds before deciding to go for it! The drive only took about three and a half hours one way, completely reasonable for a lifer for both of us and first NV state record if accepted by the NBRC.

Often in birding we spend a lot of time looking at dull-but-exciting birds like Nutting's Flycatchers. The Common Crane combined local rarity with a high degree of sexiness, so much so that we watched it for about an hour and a half and only left because we realized it was getting late and we still had to drive three and a half hours home.

One of David's shots of this beautiful MEGA

After seeing the bird, we stopped to get gas and celebratory hot chocolate and I mentioned the bird to the attendant inside.  She was excited about it, and immediately said she'd take her son out to see it, since he loves birds and it sounded interesting. Cool!

Overton WMA, where we stood and watched the cranes feed

 Unfortunately there was a bit of a damper on the experience. When we arrived, a photographer was on the field, walking toward the cranes. The birds were clearly agitated, but she continued moving forward, slowly, in increments. Once it became clear that she was pushing the birds beyond reason, I started calling for her to back off, but she didn't hear me. Finally, she did hear David, and quickly turned and started walking back. At that point, though, she was about 20 meters from the birds, and the sudden movement caused them to flush. There was no reason for her to get that close to the birds. I don't quote the ABA Code of Ethics often, but it is worth a read once in a while.

This should not happen--and take note that this was taken with a 300mm lens (David's photo)

Fortunately, at least, the birds did not go far, just a few fields away. More information about this bird is here. Many thanks to Norman Parrish for finding the bird, to Carl Lundblad for getting the word out and nudging us to go, and to Rick Fridell for confirming that it was present Friday morning!

ANOTHER Lesser Black-backed Gull

November 30th, after a lovely day rediscovering the now-returned Nutting's Flycatcher, hiking in the Bill Williams, and finding my La Paz County Winter Wren, I thought I had used up all my birding karma for a little while.  Still, when I pulled into the refuge headquarters to scan the Bill Williams Delta, a not insignificant part of me was hoping that the Lesser Black-backed Gull would show up (click the link for more on LBBG identification).  So while I was sitting in the car starting a BirdLog checklist and I happened to put my binoculars on a brown gull that looked awfully white-rumped, I wasted no time grabbing camera and scope, jumping out of the car and setting up to scan.  I quickly got the scope on a brown gull, but was disappointed to see just another California Gull.  Used to disappointment after three solid days doing nothing but looking for that LBBG, I sighed and scanned on.  Then immediately got on another brown gull, this one with a white rump and white-based tail with a contrasting black band.  The Lesser Black-backed Gull!!

Long wings, masked appearance and white tail with black band.

To say that I was excited to see this bird would be something of an understatement.  Not that it wasn't fun birding around Havasu for three days and finding some other rarities and all, but I kind of ran myself ragged looking for that bird in Lake Havasu City.  I chased and missed the first state record, as well, a bird near Phoenix in 2006.  So after snapping some photos, I laughed and danced a jig and I'm sure some refuge visitors wondered what was going on with the lunatic with the scope and camera.

Fishing with Ring-billed Gulls

Soon, David had arrived from Havasu.  The bird had flown to nearby Havasu Springs, so we drove over and found it loafing on a beach.  David, being the real photographer between us, had taken control of his camera and got some much better shots.  It was he who first wondered whether it might be a different bird.  I had noticed that it seemed much whiter than in John's photos, but I didn't think much of it.  Now much closer to the bird, I checked it out in the scope, and sure enough, it was messier-looking than John's bird, without those nice clean edgings on the mantle feathers.  It was a single feather, though, that finally convinced us that it was a different bird.  In the flight shots above, note an obvious missing primary on the left wing.  One of David's photos shows that this feather isn't missing altogether, but is actually growing in, and it's more than four days along.

Narrower tertial edgings and messier scapulars and wing coverts than the Lake Havasu City bird

Better photo showing how white the plumage is.  Photo by David Vander Pluym

White plumage streaked with brown, masked face.  Photo by David Vander Pluym

The magical photo showing the primary growing in!  Photo by David Vander Pluym

Exciting times here on the river!

Lesser Black-backed Gull - Lake Havasu

Two days ago (26 November 2012), John West photographed an odd gull on the beach at Rotary Park.  He sent the photos to David Vander Pluym, who immediately identified it as a juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull!

Photos by John West

Above are two of John's photos of the Lesser Black-backed Gull.  I have fairly limited experience with Lesser Black-backed Gull, but I do see California and Herring Gulls regularly.  This bird is striking to me because the scapulars, tertials, and some of the wing coverts are solidly dark with narrow white edging.  Some important ID points are the long wings, narrow white edging on the tertials not reaching the greater coverts, fairly small black bill (though it seems to be on the large side for LBBG), fairly white ground color, masked face and streaked sides, and a dark bar on the greater coverts formed by dark bases growing broader distally.  In flight, it shows a black band on the tail (white bases to the outer rects) and plain dark underwing coverts.

There are two records of Lesser Black-backed Gull for Arizona.  Photos of those birds are here and here.

I've spent the past two days running around Havasu looking for this bird, without success.  However, I have seen a number of other goodies just being out and about.  In the Bill Williams, David and I saw the continuing two White-winged and four Surf Scoters.  At Rotary Park, we saw the two Pacific Loons which John found two days ago.

Pacific Loon on Thompson Bay, photographed 28 November

Also on Thompson Bay yesterday were two Arizona Review Species, a Black Scoter and a Red-throated Loon.

Red-throated Loon on Thompson Bay, photographed 27 November

Black Scoter on Thompson Bay, photographed 27 November

Today, I did something new, and bought a day pass to Lake Havasu State Park.  I think $10 is a bit steep to walk around on otherwise abundant lakeshore, but there is usually a nice gull flock there.  Not so today, but I checked the small cactus garden there, where I ran into a male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at Lake Havasu SP, photographed 28 November

Best of all these birds, though, was a White-winged Scoter on the California side of the lake.  A county bird for me yesterday, and for David today.  I'm planning to give the Lesser Black-backed Gull another day of searching.  After all, the Glaucous Gull was notoriously difficult to find, and that bird was a cinch to pick out and ID even when it was over a mile away!

Mew Gull - Bullhead City

Way back on January 29, David and I embarked on an epic day of birding...well, not all that epic, until we crossed the Bullhead/Laughlin bridge (just south of Davis Dam), and noted a gull flock loafing below the bridge.  We pulled into a parking lot just across from the gulls, and David started scanning with the scope.  Looking through binoculars, I noticed that the far-left bird looked a little "off", just a little, well, little, and smudgy.  I asked David if I could please have the scope for a moment to check out a gull.  Looking through the scope, I saw brown primaries and my eye rested on the petite bill - a Mew Gull!

The American population of this species (probably a good species itself) is fairly restricted to the Pacific Coast in winter, with only occasional strays inland.  If accepted by the ABC, this will be only the 13th Mew Gull recorded in Arizona.  Their rarity is compounded by the fact that they kinda look like young Ring-billed Gulls.  The photo below shows most of the relevant ID points - all-brown tail, tiny bill, smudgy plumage, silvery under-primaries, brown outer primaries, and middle primaries with pale inner webs and dark outer webs and tips (among other points).

As far as finding and identifying rare gulls, well, they are a real pain in the ass.  In Lake Havasu City, we have swarms of Ring-billed Gulls, usually with no other species, at least this winter.  This has meant gull-watching has been really boring, so I've been staring at the first-cycle Ring-bills trying to turn them into Mew Gulls.  It is this kind of behavior that makes an actual Mew Gull really pop out - in particular, I keep mentioning the smudgy plumage, whereas most young Ring-bills have crisp, even pretty, speckling.

As of yesterday, the gull was still haunting the area - it was seen and photographed yesterday evening at Katherine Landing, where the bird seems to roost or at least stop before going to roost.