Franklin's Gull on lower right - Laughing Gulls above
Taken by Les Willis with a Nikon Coolpix 4300 Digital Camera through a Zeiss Diascope 85mm w/ 20-60x zoom eyepiece.
Yard Bird #190! I've been searching the Laughing Gulls for 3 years now in the late summer & fall for this one. I probably wouldn't have found this bird if it had not been for my daily vigil of watching for the White Ibis roosting on the power towers.
This bird's size, bill structure, half hood, & shorter wings (note how "short" the bird looks - Laughing Gull has longer wings which extend farther out beyond the tail) drew me to the bird. I watched it for 10 minutes noting the hood, eye crescents, and the white on the tips of its wings.
Franklin's Gull on lower right - Laughing Gulls above
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Copyright 2005 Les Willis