Out birding last week for a day. Gulls are underappreciated birds. If you take time to watch them, they are amazing, agile, and intelligent. Also, they pose challenges to identification. A couple other birds thrown in here, too. #birding #birdwatching #birds #gull #cormorant #duck #PNW #SnohomishCounty #nature #birdphotography #photography #naturephotography
@brownsbay nice selection! gulls are endlessly frustrating, ha ha. i enjoy the id process (tho I have them all pretty well done for my area; at least for the adults
@browneyedgirl The cormorant is a Pelagic Cormorant (should show with your cursor over the photo). I take a lot of gull photos because gull hybridization creates havoc with ID, and the large gulls go through a four-year cycle before reaching adult plumage. The photos give me an opportunity to study the finer features.
@brownsbay ah, so it does! i need to develop the habit of checking that.
That's fascinating, we have pelagic cormorants here (san diego) and they do not look like this, they are jet black. Could be the lighting and/or breeding/non-breeding plumage? They seem to be here year round, albeit in smaller numbers than the Double-Crested or even the Brandt's Cormorants...
Yah, the four year growth cycle of gulls also plays havoc It's a long, but fun, process for me as well.
@brownsbay ok, quick check with All About Birds and yep, I only see non-breeding here! Now I have to check the timestamps on my photos, I really thought I was spotting them all year...!
@browneyedgirl Check out this gull cheat sheet. It's based on the Bay Area but works well for pretty much all gulls you'll see on the west coast.
https://www.johnmuirlaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Laws_Gull_ID.pdf
@brownsbay ooh, that's a nice summary. I know we get herring gulls here but I suspect I drop them into the 2nd/3rd year western gull group...
@brownsbay Nice photos. I love gulls! They are amusing to watch, and great for photos. Although, I can understand why a lot of people think of them as pests...