Iceland or Thayer's Gull?

Gull identification, especially for juveniles, can be very challenging. Many an expert birder will take a pass on ID'ing them. This past January, while in Duluth, we stopped at Canal Park to work through the resident Herring Gull flock looking for any rarities (Glaucous, Iceland and/or Thayer's Gull). We found one very interesting 2nd cycle Gull, that the locals had named "Herman".  It was named "Herman" because the locals could not decide on whether it was a Thayer's or an Iceland Gull (split about 50-50 on the ID), with it being a hybrid as a third possiblity.  I made sure I took a lot of pictures of "Herman" and then sent several of my best photos to my New Jersey experts for their opinions on "Herman".  Six New Jersey experts looked at my photos, two said it was a Thayer's Gull, two said it was an Iceland Gull, and the last two punted (one stating that he does not do juvenile gulls).  Still a 50-50 split.  Sometimes you just have to accept that you will not be able to identify a bird, even when you have good photos.  Any opinions on what Herman is?

"Herman"

2nd Cycle Herring Gull & "Herman" (behind), note differences in their wings



Nemesis Bird 4 - Ross's Goose

January had ended with me adding three Nemesis Birds (Great Gray Owl, Iceland Gull, & Barred Owl) to my Life List.  Since i was on a role with local species, I decide I would focus my efforts on the only probable Nemesis Bird I still might find during the winter here in New Jersey - Ross's Goose. Unfortunately, very few Ross's Goose sightings were reported during the first two weeks of February, and my own efforts, during those same period also came up empty. My first promising lead came out of the New Jersey Rare Bird Alert for February 17, 2001, with a report of a single Ross's Goose found among 5000+ Snow Geese in Upper Freehold.  Fortunately for me, I travel through that area everday on my way to/from work, and know that a large flock of Snow Geese has been wintering in this area for years. What an awesome sight it is to see that  flock taking off, looking like a white cloud rising up from the ground, just after dawn on my drive in to work.
I would need to locate where the flock was feeding first, and then try to find a single small white goose in a flock of 5000+ larger white geese. Knowing the area well made locating this Snow Goose flock fairly easy; unfortunately, most of the geese were too far out in the field for me to get a good look at them and could not locate a Ross's Goose that weekend. However, I did find 3 Cackling Geese among them. Cackling Geese look like small Canada Geese and definitely stand out among a flock of Snow Geese.  My second promising lead came out the following week, of the New Jersey Rare Bird Alert for February.  A pair of Ross's Geese were reported in a flock of Canada Geese in a Park in Toms River. What a stroke of luck, this park was about 10-15 minutes from my home and two white geese would definitely standout in a flock of Canada Geese.  It took me about 2 seconds to locate the two Ross's Geese after I pulled into the Park's parking lot. Almost too easy. Hard to believe, but I've just run out possible Nemesis Birds that I could possibly find during the winter here in New Jersey.  But don't worry there is always another Nemesis Bird for me to chase! I am traveling to Puerto Rico this month and another opportunity to find a Mangrove Cuckoo.  Talk about a Nemesis Bird - I've been chasing after a Mangrove Cuckoo for 26+ years.  Wish me luck!

Ross's Goose

Cackling Geese in with Snow Geese

Nemesis Bird 3 - Barred Owl

After adding two Nemesis Birds to my Life List in 2 weeks (Great Gray Owl & Iceland Gull), I did not think January could get any better. My former Nemesis Birds, like the Great Gray Owl, seemed like they stayed on the top of my target list for a few years. Finding an Iceland Gull, my new #1 Nemesis bird, just 2 weeks later, had never happened to me before. Fortunately (unfortunately?) there always seems to be another species waiting to become my next #1 Nemesis Bird. One tropical species, the Mangrove Cuckoo, has successfully eluded me on every trip into mangroves, for over 26 years since my first trip down to the Ding Darling NWR on Sanibel Island, Florida, is a prime candidate for my #1 nemesis bird. However, since it was still only January, and I would not be traveling to any area with mangroves until March, I decided to pick a local species and really focus my efforts on trying to find it before my Trip to Puerto Rico in March. Out of my 15 possible lifer species remaining on the New Jersey List, only 4 species might be found in New Jersey during the Winter, but only two of these species - Ross's Goose and Barred Owl, had I actively chased. The question was which of these two speices should name as my next Nemesis Bird?  My answer arrived in an E-mail from a birding friend later in evening on the Friday I found the Iceland Gull. My friend had seen a Barred Owl that afternoon down at Brigantine (Edwin B. Forsythe NWR) and included a photo of it in her E-mail. We had been trying over multiple trips over several years to find me a Barred Owl,  so she knew that I would be very interested in this bird. Unfortunately due to a prior commitment, a trip down to Brigantine,
would have to wait until Sunday afternoon! However, since Brigantine also hosts a large flock of Snow Geese in winter, there always is the possiblity of finding a Ross's Goose among them.  On  Sunday afternoon, I drove down to Brigantine, arriving about 3:00 PM.  My first stop along the wildlife drive was the Gull Pond, where off in the distance, in the general location where my friend had seen the Barred Owl (and at the far end of the drive from my current location), I could hear an Owl calling. The problem was this Owl was only doing a single "hoot" each time it called, so I was unable to ID it by its call. As for the Snow Geese, I was able to locate a large flock of several thousand birds but they were just too far out on the Salt Marsh to even try to search for a Ross's Goose. At least the Short-eared Owls were cooperating that afternoon. Then close to sunset, I finally arrived in the general area where I thought I had heard the Owl, except it had stopped calling.  After a fruitless search in the area, where my friend had seen the Barred Owl on Friday, I got back into my car to finish the rest of the wildlife drive, ready to admit defeat.  I maybe gone another 100 yards when I got a very brief glance of a large bird as it flew across the road before disappearing behind some trees.  I quickly drove up to the point where I last saw  it got out, started to scan the area and there sitting in a tree about 20' off the road was a Barred Owl!  My third Nemesis Bird in two weeks and my second in New Jersey in just 2 days.  Amazing!

Nemesis Bird 2 - Iceland Gull

After returning from Duluth and finally seeing my Nemesis Bird - Great Gray Owl, it was time for me to decide on what species should become my next #1 Nemesis Bird.  Should it be one of only16 species on the New Jersey State list that would be a lifer for me or something else? Since I had no out of state birding trips planned until March, I thought I should focus on a New Jersey species that I could possible find here during the winter, which cut the possiblities from 16 down to about 4. The heavy snows of late December and early January help me to decide that trekking into the woods after a Nemesis Bird would not be good idea, which narrowed my choices down to a coastal species, and of these there was only one possibility in the winter - Iceland Gull. However, my next birding opportunity (two weeks after Duluth) was with a birding couple that I had met in Panama. They were driving down from Connecticut one Friday morning and asked me to guide them to see some of Jersey Shore winter birds. However, since they had seen Iceland Gull before, it was not a target species for the trip.  If the weather conditions are right, Barnegat Light is one of the best locations on the East Coast to find certain species at close range like Harlequin Duck, Long-tailed Duck and Purple Sandpipers. As my luck would have it, turned out that Friday afternoon had the perfect conditions, so we headed down to Barnegat Light for these species and whatever else we could find.  As I promised, all 3 of these species were very cooperative, providing them with great close looks. However as we started back towards the beach, I scanned a flock of gulls sitting on the beach, close to the jetty.  There among the flock of Herring Gulls was one slightly smaller white bird, a first year - Iceland Gull! My second Nemesis Bird in two weeks.  Oh if they all could be this easy!

Harlequin Ducks

Purple Sandpiper

Long-taild Duck

Iceland Gull

Nemesis Bird 1 - Great Gray Owl

Hi Everyone:  Not quite sure how we got into mid-February so quickly!  I remember getting off the plane from Mumbai, India on December 1st, then suddenly it was mid-January and I was getting on a plane to Duluth, Minnesota,  ready to face sub-zero temperatures in pursuit of my Nemesis Bird - the Great Gray Owl. If you have been birding for any period of time you have at least one Nemesis Bird, usually a relatively "common" bird but for some reason you are just unable to "get" it. The Great Gray, the largest of our owl species, was "alledged" by my guide, Kim Risen, to be a year-round resident in the Sax-Zimm Bog, about an hour's drive outside of Duluth. Although Kim over 4 prior trips out to Duluth (2 in mid-winter) had put me on many a great bird, all his efforts to locate a Great Gray for me had been in vane.  So much so that I jokenly would tease him that I had a greater chance of seeing Bigfoot! Hopefully my 3rd winter trip would be different. Although Winter birding in Northern Minnesota is really hard core, I was able to convince my friend from Massachusetts, John Mitchell, to join me on this trip. We met in Minneapolis and then flew up to
Duluth where we met up with Kim and headed out for Sax-Zimm.  The next few hours were a repeat of my prior trips, lots of miles covered but no Great Gray Owl, then just before sunset my guide received a phone call from a friend, that had located a Great Gray Owl just a few miles away from our current position.  We raced to location and there sitting up in tree about 50 feet off the road was Great Gray Owl. But it doesn't end there.  What an awesome bird.  Nemesis 1 eliminated!

Great Gray Owl