[Ontbirds]Kittiwake, other gulls - Niagara River

[Willie D'Anna and Betsy Potter]

A group of gull-watchers scoured the Niagara River at the power plants and
around the falls today.  There are lots of gulls on the river now but at one
point for an hour or two today, there were very few below the control gates
where there had just been LOTS.  The reason was due to what sounded like an
explosion from the nearby consruction site (for additional water intakes)
which sent ALL the gulls (thousands) into the air with only a fraction of
them returning in the short term.  Where did they go?  A couple of hours
later, many had returned.  Anyway, we had several Lesser Black-backed Gulls,
1 near-adult Glaucous picked out by Jim Pawlicki, a few Iceland, and one
adult Thayer's Gull (the latter was on the breakwall) below the control
gates (the large structure that juts way out into the river, which is a mile
or so above the falls).  Two MERLINS were seen near the Spanish Aero Car
(a.k.a. the Whirlpool).  There were about 15 ICELAND GULLS at the power
plants from the Adam Beck overlook in the morning as well as an adult and a
possible first-winter THAYER'S GULL.  Also there was a possible "NELSON'S
GULL" (Herring X Glaucous hybrid) in juvenile plumage.  This would be the
darkest of this form I have ever seen.  It was larger than the Herring Gulls
with a slightly larger bill that was very pink-based with a sharply
demaracted black tip.  At rest, the dark brown primaries showed pale
chevrons similar to a like-aged Thayer's Gull.  I only saw this bird too
briefly in flight to study the primaries well.

Late in the day, Betsy picked out an immature BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE along
the Adam Beck Power Plant.  This bird hugged the plant so closely that 90%
or more of the time, we could not see it.  Every once in a while, it would
pop out so that we could see it very briefly from the Adam Beck overlook and
then immediately fly back into the plant and out of our view.  It was as if
it was on a string!

Good birding!
Willie
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Willie D'Anna
Betsy Potter
Wilson, NY
dannapotterATroadrunner.com
http://www.betsypottersart.com