Around 2000 Snow Geese were seen flying in the direction of Merrill Creek Reservoir. I also found a Cackling Goose among the Canadas, providing a nice comparison between the two.
Also notice that the Cackling Goose is also much more smaller than the 2 Snow Geese that were there.
Down at the Martins Creek PPL boat launch area, a female Red-breasted Merganser was spotted on the rocks by the bridge, but it flew before I could get a photo. A Bald Eagle circled over the river and stirred up the 43 Ring-billed Gulls.
I left there and headed down to the "Forks of the Delaware" in Easton to check for gulls. Most of the roughly 400 gulls were on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River. While scanning through the flock, I came across a gull that I couldn't identify to species. What caught my eye was its very noticeably barred back. It had a clean white head with a smudge around the eye. It also had what appeared to be a small, all-dark bill like that of a young Iceland Gull, but the head shape was wrong and the wingtips were all dark. The head was too clean and the bill appeared too small for Herring Gull. Vega Gull could be a very remote possibility, but so is the possibility of a dreaded hybrid. I couldn't really determine the leg color.
I went home and got out my gull guides and still couldn't pin this bird to a particular species. I plan on going down there again tomorrow to see if I can refind it and hopefully get some much closer and better photos.
No comments:
Post a Comment