Glaucous-winged Gull in Ontario?

[RobinHood]

Definitely not my sighting (a long way to go with gulls) but very interested to hear the opinions of our west coast gull experts.

This bird was reported a couple of days ago by a very experienced birder and I think is still still under review but has created a local birding frenzy.

https://ebird.org/checklist/S98164819

Looks good to me.

[Seanbirds]

I agree it looks good, but how would one rule out a hybrid thingy?

[RobinHood]

1 minute ago, Seanbirds said:

I agree it looks good, but how would one rule out a hybrid thingy?

You are asking the wrong person 🙂.

It is under review by the big guns.

[Seanbirds]

Just now, RobinHood said:

You are asking the wrong person 🙂.

It is under review by the big guns.

Incredible bird, whatever it is.

[RobinHood]

1 minute ago, Seanbirds said:

Incredible bird, whatever it is.

Maybe I should break my rule of not chasing rare birds and make the 45 minute drive? OTOH I am quite happy with the close up shots I got of a Long-tailed Duck today, probably the closest I have achieved -  each to their own?

[Seanbirds]

2 minutes ago, RobinHood said:

Maybe I should break my rule of not chasing rare birds and make the 45 minute drive? OTOH I am quite happy with the close up shots I got of a Long-tailed Duck today, probably the closest I have achieved -  each to their own?

Definitely chase it if you can! I would.

[neilpa]

29 minutes ago, Seanbirds said:

I agree it looks good, but how would one rule out a hybrid thingy?

From the eBird report - *fresh stool sample taken*

Sounds like a DNA sequence is on the table

[RobinHood]

4 minutes ago, neilpa said:

From the eBird report - *fresh stool sample taken*

Sounds like a DNA sequence is on the table

Yes, I noticed that - is this somewhat unusual, but maybe not for gulls? Not something I have noticed in reports before.

[Charlie Spencer]

45 minutes ago, RobinHood said:

Maybe I should break my rule of not chasing rare birds and make the 45 minute drive?

I might chase 45 minutes away if I was any good with gulls.  Since I'm not likely to be able to separate this gull from any others in the immediate area, I'd give it a pass.  But 45 minutes isn't too far, especially if there are other birds in the area.

Edited November 29, 2021 by Charlie Spencer

[RobinHood]

14 minutes ago, Charlie Spencer said:

I might chase 45 minutes away if I was any good with gulls.  Since I'm not likely to be able to separate this gull from any others in the immediate area, I'd give it a pass.  But 45 minutes isn't too far, especially if there are other birds in the area.

Recently some nice birds at this location including a Pacific Loon and other uncommon gulls which I have resisted so far (I much prefer coming across them on my own) but now a Black-legged Kittiwake also!!, maybe too much to resist. I suspect it will be a zoo.

[RobinHood]

1 hour ago, neilpa said:

From the eBird report - *fresh stool sample taken*

Sounds like a DNA sequence is on the table

Just checked in on the local Facebook page and although one acknowledged expert is reasonably convinced (hybrids are still in the mix) it seems the stool sample is going to be the determining factor.

[IKLland]

Nice! 

[Hasan]

It's not well agreed upon what constitutes the features of a 'pure' Glaucous-winged Gull. You'll often find disagreeing experts from different places saying different things. That species/group is just a mess

[Aidan B]

5 minutes ago, Hasan said:

That species/group is just a mess.

You can say that again! 

[Charlie Spencer]

1 hour ago, Aidan B said:

You can say that again! 

"That species/group is just a mess."

[Jerry Friedman]

2 hours ago, RobinHood said:

Recently some nice birds at this location including a Pacific Loon and other uncommon gulls which I have resisted so far (I much prefer coming across them on my own) but now a Black-legged Kittiwake also!!, maybe too much to resist. I suspect it will be a zoo.

Perfect, the cages should be labeled with species names.

[AlexHenry]

No way, that's a Cook Inlet all day

[AlexHenry]

Look at that flight shot. The Herring pattern is just SO evident...

[PaulK]

For what it's worth if I saw that in Vancouver I'd call it a hybrid. Just too dark for a pure GWGU, at least in these parts.

(@RobinHooddidn't I see you say you're in Simcoe County? I wouldn't have thought this was that far out of your way.)

[PaulK]

I was wondering about this bird so looked up the RBA for the county and I keep going back and forth on this bird as to whether it's primarily a hybrid or just a slight hybrid in the cosmopolitan GWGU way. Really depends on the lighting in the photos, but I'm still thinking darker than the aver-age gull (only people my age or older will hear the cadence on that right). Really cool bird for the location either way, and interesting (and justifiable!) that the million reports are all unconfirmed.

Always funny looking at an RBA across the country, how the bog-standard local birds are major rarities somewhere else (Coots! Wigeons!). (And @RobinHood, that pic of the Peregrine where you couldn't adjust your camera settings in time is better than any photo I'll ever take of a falcon.)

[RobinHood]

3 hours ago, PaulK said:

Really cool bird for the location either way, and interesting (and justifiable!) that the million reports are all unconfirmed.

I did make two visits and just missed it each time. I was actually more interested in the Pacific and/or Red-throated Loon reported at this location also, saw one of them but too distant to differentiate other than definitely not Common.

The visiting birders thought it would take around two weeks to get a result, depending on when the sample could be added to a batch run. From my very limited research on bird species stool sample DNA testing a definitive result is not a given although it sounds like there was minimal degradation in this case.

Yes, the Peregrine literally zipped by me from behind and then disappeared, a few minutes later there were hundreds of ducks in the air heading into the distance.

The "common" birds you mentioned are tagged currently because of time of year (Redhead, Wigeon, Pintail, Lesser Scaup).