I have seen all kinds of Laughing Gulls in various plumages but this one was interesting. The primaries are molted and just poking through, and the cap pattern is reminiscent of a Black-headed Gull but anyway it was just a Laughing.
At Airlie Gardens yesterday I had a massive flight of Eastern Kingbirds.
This fox looked like it needed a meal pretty badly.
Western Kingbird! I thought it was a Gray Kingbird at first. I called Sam C and he came quickly but unfortunately it moved on with the Kingbird flock before he got there.
White edges on the tail is a good field mark.
Sam had to go to work and so did I but I thought I would just check the thrush area of the garden before I took off and I was happy I did. I had 2-3 presumed Gray-cheeked Thrushes and a Veery.
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Then someone posted about two Sabine's Gulls in Greensboro. I got the blessing from the wife and took the rest of my day's teleconferences on the road. 4 hours later I was searching Lake Townsend and eventually met up with Henry and Elizabeth L who had found the gulls earlier in the day. We searched all over Lake Townsend with no luck so I suggested Lake Brandt and Henry convinced me that we could check the marina overlook before total darkness. We got there and scoped and didn't find anything and I was about to give up when Elizabeth spotted them! We got Henry's high powered astronomical scope on the birds and watched one of them bob and feed in a very distinctive way. Small head with small bill, long wings. It was too late with too bad light to see any color detail but Henry confirmed the birds behaved and looked like the ones he saw earlier in the day. I am so glad I made the trip because they were not seen on Saturday so far.
Worse photo of a Sabine's Gull ever. However, you can get the "jizz" of the bird with long wings and small head. Plus there were no other gulls seen in the area.
Back on Saturday it was BMC time! That's Burnt Mill Creek for the uninitiated.
Hmmm, interesting empid.. Could very well be a Yellow-bellied.
A great couple days.... and it's not over yet. I am going to try the spit at high tide this afternoon.
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