Boulder County. My view of the bird suggested a darker coloration than shown in the ebird photo link included in Paul Hurtado's comment.
I am not sure whether this a question of different lighting conditions or a color saturation issue with the photos. The photos seem to show a far more "bleached-looking" bird than my scope views suggested.
The bird in question had a very uniform pale brown overall plumage color. When it spread its wings the plumage all the way from the
neck, down through the mantle and all along the tail was an identical color. The spread wings were also uniform looking with nothing
obviously dark or different along the wing. When standing and viewed from the side the folded primaries looked a slight bit darker but this
may have just been a sunlight/shadowing effect. The bill was all dark and appropriately large --- much larger than on the nearby Thayer's
Gulls. The legs seemed darker than the photos show but still pinkish (rather than black). The bird appeared identical in size to first
winter Herring Gulls with both standing side by side.
The variety among the gulls at Teller #5 is unusual for Boulder County allowing excellent views of different species side by side.
There were many Herring Gulls (first winters, adults, and maybe a 3rd year), one adult California Gull, several first winter Thayer's
Gull and one 2nd year, and close to 100 Ring-billeds. No sign of anything "Black-backed" though. The turnover in birds was significant
with new gulls coming in continuously.
Alex Brown
Boulder
On Thursday, January 24, 2013 3:53:26 PM UTC-7, William Kaempfer wrote:
--John Vanderpoel and I observed a first cycle Glaucous-winged Gull this morning at Teller Lake #5 in Boulder (off Valmont near 95th St.)
Teller 5 is excellent for gulls right now and worth a visit (even if that %@#$ Golden-crowned Sparrow can't be found). The lake dried out this past fall leaving a harvest of dead fish, mainly huge catfish, I think, in the frozen mud toward the east end of the reservoir. This attracts a group of about 100 gulls during the day. There are two noteworthy things about this collection of gulls. First since they are feeding on dead fish the flock is mainly large, pink-legged gulls. I would say that only 25% are Ring-billed Gulls which is unheard of in Colorado for a group of 100+ gulls. Second, because they are feeding, one can get quite close to them (within 100 yards) and have excellent views. This group has had multiple Thayer's plus Lesser Black-backed, Great Black-backed and now Glaucous-winged in the past week. Interestingly, all of these good birds have been first (or second) cycle.
Here is my (probably lame) description of the Glaucous-winged from eBird: Large first cycle gull. Overall larger than nearby 1st cycle Thayer's. Uniform pale tan overall with wingtips not differentiated from overall color of the bird. Large all black bill.
Bill Kaempfer
Boulder
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