[cobirds] Lake Loveland gulls, Larimer County

I hung out at Lake Loveland hoping to refind the possible Mew Gull. The flock of 75 gulls on the mud in the northwest lagoon never fully materialized - roughly 45 gulls showed up tonight - all Ring-billed Gulls. Again they took off about 8 pm towards a communal roost and this time I followed them. It turns out they stayed at Lake Loveland where they roosted in the middle of the lake. All together there were 130 Ring-billed Gulls in the middle of the lake, but none of them appeared to be the candidate Mew Gull. There was a small dark juvenile gull that in the low light looked incredibly dark, much darker than the 1 juv Ring-billed Gull present. This gull was in the size range of Ring-billed Gull, and in the fading light appeared uniformly sooty brown, almost blackish, with little contrast between the black primaries and the dark body. There had been a darkish juv California Gull hanging around earlier in the afternoon, so I presume this was that bird (although watching it through the scope I thought this bird was quite a bit darker than the Cal Gull juv, which I had photographed - see http://upload.pbase.com/image/151845776.). The crisp white edges of the scapulars evident in the photo didn't show at all on this bird, maybe because of the distance and the darkness. Certainly an interesting bird which I will keep an eye out for.

Nick Komar
Fort Collins, CO