Lorain Harbor

I had to get over to Lorain, so I made some time to check out the harbor for a couple hours. The Spitzer Marina, where Gabe saw all the birds yesterday was frozen over as mentioned earlier by Craig. I did see my only Glaucous gull in this area, a first cycle bird. I also saw two Iceland gulls, an adult and third cycle. There were also at least 7 lesser black-backed gulls.. As mentioned by Craig, the Bascule Bridge was closed so you have to cross the river via the high level bridge.

The river was the best place to bird today. There were large feeding flocks of mergansers in the harbor and the gulls seemed to follow them around. Picking out different gulls was a little difficult as the birds were a ways off and it was sunny. It seemed the best way to find the oddball gulls was watching for them in flight. Finding them was not that hard. Getting photos was. There were quite a few gulls in the air and trying to relocate them in your camera took a bit of luck. I did get some decent flight shots. Nine species of gulls total.

Here is the breakdown:

Bonaparte's gull- 1 near the lighthouse

Ring-billed gull- common

CALIFORNIA GULL- 1 2nd cycle. I spotted this one on the river just north of the sewage plant. It disappeared pretty quick and was not relocated

Herring gull- common

THAYER'S GULL- 9 (1 1st cycle, 2 2nd cycle, 2 3rd cycle, and 4 adults)

ICELAND GULL- 3 (1 3rd cycle and 2 adults)

Lesser black-backed gull- 9 (1 3rd cycle and 8 adults)

GLAUCOUS GULL 1 1st cycle

Great black-backed gull- common

 

Thayer's gull- 3rd cycle

 

Thayer's Gull- adult

 

Thayer's gull- adult

 

Thayer's gull- adult- Underside view.  Note dark trailing edge to the outer primaries and the dark eye

 

Herring gull- Unfortunately I couldn't get on this in time and the bird got cut off.  Note the narrow tail band on this bird.  The normal herring gull tail band is typically across the entire tail (see following shot)  This tail band is uncommon on our herring gull.

 

Herring gull- typical tail pattern