I went to the beach at high tide hoping to find a large group of oystercatchers. No luck! In fact, the beach seemed almost empty of birds except for a small flock of sanderlings. Finally, after I walked all the way around the point and headed in the direction of the lighthouse, I found a smallish flock of gulls and terns. I was scanning the group and counting when I spied a slightly different looking gull.
I see Franklin's Gulls so rarely that I worry I won't recognize one when I see it. This bird was slightly smaller than the adjacent laughing gulls, had a more defined partial hood, large white eye crescents, and a more petite bill. Bingo! I quickly took photos.
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| Who's that hiding behind those Laughing Gulls? | | |
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| Ah! There it is! The Franklin's Gull |
After I had taken about ten photos, along came a pair of walkers and flushed all the birds. The Franklin's flew over my head several times and let me get a number of photos.
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| Note partial hood, white crescents, and dark wing tips. |
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| Almost white underwings with dark wing tips |
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| Lovely from underneath! |
It did not rejoin the flock on the beach, though I looked for quite a while.
Hi Ms. Churchill,
ReplyDeleteIt's Marshall. Great find on the Franklin's Gull and awesome pictures! I look forward to seeing you when I come down to Tybee this winter!
Hope all is well!