Bountiful Landfill

["Colby Neuman" <scythebill83 at hotmail dot com>]

Glenn Barlow and Pomera Fronce met me at the Bountiful Landfill today in 
search of the previously reported gulls.  Here's what we found in about two 
hours of searching:

Ring-billed Gull - 100's
California Gull - dozens
Herring Gull - 100's of all ages
Thayer's Gull - We saw several first winter birds including one that we were 
able to get excellent looks at.  I didn't find any today, but I had several 
adults yesterday.
"Olympic" Gull - the previously reported second winter hybrid
GLAUCOUS GULL - I saw a first winter bird flyover, but I was not able to get 
Glenn or Pomera on the bird
GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL - We saw the previously reported first winter bird just 
as we were leaving; I was also able to get a few photos of this gull in bad 
light yesterday so hopefully we can find out if this bird has ONLY 
Glaucous-winged genes.
LESSER BLACK=BACKED GULL - 1 second winter - Yes, this bird really does 
exist Cliff!  We only saw the bird flying, but we were able to get fairly 
decent looks at it.  The bird had a slate gray mantle that was slightly 
darker than nearby California Gulls with what appeared to be some old brown 
scapular and mantle feathers mixed in.  I never was able to determine the 
percentage of the mantle that these older feathers occupied.  The upperwing 
was largely dark brown with the inner primaries being slightly paler than 
the outer primaries.  The uppertail coverts were mostly white with some 
brown feathers scattered about the region (a little more so than Sibley 
illustrates).  The tail had a dark black band that was thickest towards the 
center of the tail.  The outer retrices were a mix of white (especially 
closest to the body) and dark markings (I think on the inner webs of the 
feathers) before giving way to the dark tail band observed.  I think there 
was also a pale outer edge to the dark tail band.  The forehead, chest and 
undertail coverts were mostly white with only a few brown markings.  The 
belly, flanks, and nape appeared to have more brown smudging than the rest 
of the underparts of the bird.  From what I could tell the bill was fairly 
small (little if any gony angle) and black, but there could have been some 
pale towards the base of the bill.  Although the mantle color is apparent, I 
do not find it to be very helpful when trying to spot this bird.  I found 
that the dark tail band contrasting with the largely white uppertail coverts 
to be the easiest field mark to observe when trying to pick this bird out of 
a large flock of flying gulls.

THE BEST OF GOOD BIRDING!!!

Colby




and  did got a good look at the bird standing, but we had awesome looks of 
the bird flying.

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