I had occasion to briefly stop by Warren Lake this afternoon. About 120 gulls were loafing on the ice between the pockets of aerated open water. One first cycle gull caught my eye as it was large and not as uniform in color as the nearby first-cycle Herring Gulls. Size-wise it was relative to the Herring Gulls had pinkish legs that were easily distinguished from the yellow legs of the smaller Lesser Black-backed Gulls that were in close proximity. Though my photos are not crisp, I think there is enough there to call this a Western Gull. I compared my photos with those that Ted Floyd took at Waneka Lake in Boulder County in late November and to my eye they look darn close. This could also be the Larus sp. that Nick Komar had at Carter Lake in Loveland and few nights ago. The bird has very dark, long primaries. The tail was quite dark and the photo I took of the tail fanned out seemed to match up with Ted's photo of the bird in flight well. Perhaps the bird has molted a few more scaps since then but overall it looked similar. The bill was noticeably thicker than the Herring Gulls. All black with maybe a hint of pale coloring near the base of the lower mandible. Tertials were dark with light edges. The scaps and all coverts look right to me. I have tried to copy and paste my photos in the text here but for whatever reason they are not copying correctly. So, I have included my ebird checklist with photos below for review.
If there are any Larophiles out there that can lend some eyes to the photos, I would greatly appreciate the input.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S78855853
Bird is the word!
Josh Bruening
Fort Collins
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