Glaucous-winged Gull - Larus glaucescens
There is something good about stumbling across a bunch of photos and realising that you have completely forgotten to "process" them for the Daily Bird. One morning while staying at Pacific Sands resort near Tofino, Vancouver Island and a good 2 year's ago in 2014 I decided to take a walk along the beach and snap as many gulls as I could. The clear idea was that I would wade through them at some point later with a Sibley guide and see what I could "string" together.
Not to disappoint myself I am calling this as a Glaucus-winged Gull. Why ? The range of all the likely candidates do overlap. This was I think July so fairly and squarely in the breeding season. In the Sibley guide all the candidates have head detail drawings and in particular the "orbital ring" of the eye (the bare skin round the eye) and the gape (the bare skin at the very top of the bill) can be diagnostic.
Its very faint but they appear to me to be pink. Coupled with a brown Iris and the lighter slate grey back with a matching colour for the wing tips (i.e. not black with "mirrors" like some species) and I am content with the identification. I can remember the puddle quite well and thinking to myself - oh no Gulls !! Quite a few more to work through and its likely that they are not all the same species.
I should pay more attention to Gulls but sadly they do not excite me in the slightest. Not the same as a tern or a shearwater or a Petrel. ABG - anything but Gulls.
Glaucous-winged Gull
Tofino, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
July 2014
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