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Bald Eagle (1) 4/2 at Willow Lake by Bob Thomen. Last of
season.
Hooded Oriole (1) Bullock’s Oriole (1) 4/2 at Jim Morgan’s, Diamond
Valley. Plumbeous Vireo (1) 4/4 in Copper Canyon by Walt Anderson.
Peregrine Falcon (2) 4/4 eating a Wood Duck in The Dells by Carl
Tomoff.
Lucy’s Warbler (1) 4/6 in The Dells by Bob Thomen.
Swainson’s Hawk (1) 4/8 in Chino Valley by Russell Duerksen.
Red-breasted Merganser (15) 4/11 at Willow Lake by Bob Thomen.
White-faced Ibis (6) 4/13 at Willow Lake by Bob Thomen.
Willet (18), Common Goldeneye (10) 4/14 at Willow Lake by Bob Thomen.
Lazuli Bunting (1) 4/14 in Spring Valley by Shirley Register.
Green-tailed Towhee (1) 4/15 at Kathy Wingert’s.
Canada Goose (3) 4/13 at Willow Lake by Bob Thomen. Very
late.
Northern Goshawk (1), Zone-tailed Hawk (1), Western Flycatcher (2),
House Wren (1), Hermit Thrush (1), Black-throated Warbler (1),
Townsend’s Warbler (3), Hermit Warbler (1), Grace’s Warbler (1),
Painted Redstart (2) 4/18 near Highland Pines by Walt Anderson.
Ash-throated Flycatcher (1) 4/20 at Walt Anderson’s.
Gray Flycatcher (2) 4/20 on Big Bug Mesa by Walt Anderson.
Western Kingbird (1) 4/20 at Bonnie Pranter’s.
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Black-headed Grosbeak (3), Brown-headed Cowbird (1), Cassin’s
Vireo (1) 4/22 in Stricklin Park by Walt Anderson.
Lark Bunting (1) 4/22 at Shirley Register’s. Excellent sighting.
Black Hawk (2), Vermilion Flycatcher (6), White-winged Dove (2), Common
Poorwill (1), Wilson’s Warbler (1) 4/22 at Burro Creek by Kelly Pope.
Bronzed Cowbird (1) 4/24 at Bonnie Pranter’s.
Chukar (1) 4/26 in Yavapai Hills by Susan Riebel.
Clark’s Grebe (1), Glaucous Gull (1) 4/27 at Willow Lake by Bob Thomen.
Glaucous Gull is Bird of the Month. (See below **)
Summer Tanager (1) 4/28 at Helene Kaplan’s.
** Thursday, April 27, 2000, Willow Lake. About 1
p.m., at a distance of at least 2500 feet from the west, through a
20X60 Bausch and Lomb Senior Balscope, I observed 11 gulls on a narrow
spit. The gulls were facing toward me, and 10 of them were the same
size, and appeared to be of one species. The eleventh one was at least
two sizes larger, particularly in girth.
As the light was not all that good, it required some time and
hard looking to be certain of the identification of the ten, which were
Ring-billed Gulls. I was unable to identify the larger gull. It
appeared to be whitish, with a large light-colored bill that was
“sharply” black at the tip.
I looked again at perhaps 2:30 p.m., and the gulls were gone.
Looking over the lake I found a loose flock of gulls milling about, but
no large one. I looked again a little after 4 p.m., and found the
larger gull. It was standing alone in profile, maybe 1000 feet away.
Because of angle and the time of day, the lighting was much improved. I
studied the gull for about 20-40 minutes, and referred to my books: Gulls,
A guide to Identification, by P.J. Grant, 2nd ed.; Master Guide
to Birding, Vol. 2, by John Farrand, Jr.; National Geographic
Field guide to Birds of North America, 3rd. ed.; Western Birds,
by Roger Tory Peterson, 3rd ed.
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It was a large gull, with a large pale bill that was sharply
black 1/4 of its length at the tip. The head, hindneck, foreneck, and
breast were pure white, with a dark brown or black eye. The legs and
feet were a pale pink flesh color. Standing in profile, the rest of the
gull appeared to be a uniform light tan. (Actually it was white, with a
uniform distribution of light tan bars. This included the belly, flank,
mantle, wing, and tail. The wing extended beyond the end of the tail
perhaps 1 1/2 inches.)
Luckily, I was viewing the bird through my scope as it took
off. It rose almost directly away from me, and I was able to get a full
view of its upper parts. The only thing new that I observed at that
time was that the primaries and the secondaries were lighter in color
than the rest of the wing. That was the last that I saw of the gull.
Armed with the above information, I was now able to age and
identify the gull. There are only three North American gulls in which
the primaries and tail are no darker than the mantle. They are:
Glaucous, Iceland, and Glaucous-winged. These three gulls are of
various shades of tan only in their first year. Both the Iceland and
Glaucous-winged gulls have an all black bill. The first-summer Glaucous
Gull has a large flesh-colored bill with a sharply marked black tip.
All the other field marks were observed: large size, dark eye, light
flesh colored pink legs and feet, white head and breast, light tan
mantle, tail and wing, with lighter colored primaries and secondaries.
Checking the literature on Arizona birds, I learned the
following. Birds of Arizona (Phillips, Marshall and Monson,
pub. 1964) makes no mention of the Glaucous Gull. The Annotated
Checklist of the Birds of Arizona (Gale Monson and Allan Phillips),
which includes information through 1980, lists one immature
photographed November 30, 1972 at Boulder Beach, Lake Mead, Nevada. The
Field checklist of the Birds of Arizona (Gary Rosenberg and Dave
Stejskal) which is current through 1994, lists the Glaucous Gull as
accidental in winter, “accidental” being defined as a total of five or
less records. I strongly suspect that whatever the number of sightings
is, they are from the Colorado River system.
The main purpose for my writing this piece is to illustrate
why I have not placed some of my best sightings on the Hot Line. The
bird had flown by the time I identified it, as was the case with the
Yellow-footed Gull sighting. With the Aplomado Falcon sighting, the
identification dawned on me after the bird had been gone for hours.
Bob Thomen
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