Bird-Boys Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 (edited) Definitely not a pelican. lots of soaring. I have more pics if needed. Edited December 9, 2021 by Bird-Boys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aidan B Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 Definitely an albatross! Probably Laysan as the tail looks white, but wait for other opinions. Was this from land? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hasan Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 Can someone explain why this is definitely an Albatross? I've never seen one but the wings look fairly broad, straight and short. I don't see why this isn't a gull. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bird-Boys Posted December 10, 2021 Author Share Posted December 10, 2021 (edited) This was from land. Not a gull. I spent a lot of time studying this bird, and it was at least the size of a pelican, and it was constantly soaring, only flapping it's wings twice. Here is some other shots of what I believe is the same bird: Edited December 10, 2021 by Bird-Boys 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilpa Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 38 minutes ago, Hasan said: Can someone explain why this is definitely an Albatross? I've never seen one but the wings look fairly broad, straight and short. I don't see why this isn't a gull. It looks huge relative to the gulls in the foreground in pics 1 and 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aidan B Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 (edited) That last photo confirms LAAL with that pale belly. Absolutely amazing bird from land! Looks like the first from shore in SLO county on ebird. Congrats! Edited December 10, 2021 by Aidan B 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexHenry Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 I definitely would not identify it based on these photos. Only if you were able to conclusively identify it in the field 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexHenry Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 Let me put it this way. If you were unable to identify it in the field, you should definitely let it go and not try to push this ID… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IKLland Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 14 hours ago, Aidan B said: That last photo confirms LAAL with that pale belly. Absolutely amazing bird from land! Looks like the first from shore in SLO county on ebird. Congrats! I agree. The size just does it for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexHenry Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 Let it go 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IKLland Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 Just now, AlexHenry said: Let it go I’m curious what you mean by this? Do you mean to @Bird-Boys to just leave it unidentifiable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexHenry Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 Just now, IKLland said: I’m curious what you mean by this? Do you mean to @Bird-Boys to just leave it unidentifiable? Sometimes when you see birds and you THINK they are something, but you aren’t sure, and you aren’t able to conclusively document them, you just need to let them go. It can be frustrating to do so, but part of being a good birder is knowing when to let things go 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexHenry Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 15 hours ago, neilpa said: It looks huge relative to the gulls in the foreground in pics 1 and 3 But the birds in the foreground in pics 1 and 3 look more like Shearwaters than gulls… the truth is it’s very difficult to conclusively identify any of the birds in the photos since they are just so far away. That’s not an insult to the photographer, just one of the constant struggles of seawatching everyone has to deal with 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Spencer Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 21 minutes ago, AlexHenry said: the truth is it’s very difficult to conclusively identify any of the birds in the photos since they are just so far away. This. Someone made a comment about the relative size of the birds. At this range, with only the photo to work with, that's a difficult judgement to make. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hasan Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 Not to belabor the point, but as AlexHenry points out, the smaller birds are definitely shearwaters, not gulls. Also, size at this distance is very difficult to judge because of parallax/flattening of depth at distance 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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