Glaucous Gull - New Life Bird

Great Black-Backed Gull

Having just spoken about my difficulties with warbler identification I will now address another problem area I have - gulls. Warblers are difficult for me because they are small, in constant motion, difficult to photograph, and there are so many types. Gulls are difficult for another reason, primarily because whenever I see a gull or group or gulls I assume they are Ring-Billed Gulls. Sparrows are the same, I assume they are all House Sparrows. The problem this creates is that I seldom study a group of gulls for individuals that are different, with few exceptions.

I will usually look for Herring Gulls in a group a Ring-Billeds, mostly just for the practise of identifying them. Great Black-Backed Gulls, like the ones currently hanging around the Burlington Lift Bridge, are impossible not to notice due to their great size and black backs. I just found out today that the Great Black-Backed is the world's largest gull.

Glaucous Gull (back)

Another problem with gulls is the immatures and juveniles. Most gull species take two to three - and sometimes four - years to reach their full adult plumage. I have enough problems with adult identification. It will be a number of years before I can determine the species of an immature gull with any great measure of confidence.

The other day I was looking on the ice on the bay at the lift bridge for my first Bald Eagle of the year. The eagles are very regularly seen on the ice, though they tend to be too far out for good pictures with my equipment. I believe the eagles are fishing on the ice by waiting beside some open water for fish to appear. While looking at the eagles and wishing for a longer lens I heard to birders talking about Glaucous Gulls being seen on the ice earlier in the day.

Glaucous Gull flying
Three Bald Eagles (back)

My list of life gulls is very short, consisting of the previously mentioned Ring-Billed, Herring, Great Black-Backed, and Bonaparte's Gull. I was very interested in adding another gull to my list, but it did not happen that day. Yesterday I was at the lift bridge again, and while looking at the eagles on the ice I noticed a gull sitting close by with a white back. I knew the Glaucous was a white-backed gull, but also that the Iceland Gull is similar in appearance.

When I got home and showed my photos to Ron and Lynda we saw that the gull was quite a bit larger than the Ring-Billeds it was standing behind, making it definitely a Glaucous. I added it to my life list, which now happily contains five gull species. A winter trip to the nearby Niagara River would almost guarantee more gulls, but I would need to go with a good gull-identifying birder to get the most out of it.

Red-Breasted Merganser

My trip to the lift bridge yesterday also afforded me with my closest look this year at a Red-Breasted Merganser. Four mergansers were swimming right off the end of the canal walkway, and I popped my head over the wall to take some photos. Somewhat surprisingly they did not take flight, being a nervous duck, but swam calmly away. There were more White-Winged Scoters on the canal than I have seen in one place before, and not a single Surf Scoter to be seen with them.

There are at least eight adult Great Black-Backeds hanging around the lake end of the canal, and the Long-Tailed Ducks are still present in good numbers. Scaup and Redheads are also around, but for some reason I still haven't seen a Canvasback at the lift bridge. Identifying Scaup will be the subject of a future post, assuming I can take a picture of each and identify it myself!

Winter Ducks

Redhead

Hamilton is a great place to look for winter ducks.  As areas to the North freeze over, the ducks make their way South.  Many of them stop in the Hamilton area until it starts to freeze over here.  Lake Ontario takes a long time to freeze over, so there is usually enough time to see them during their stop over.

Redheads and Canvasbacks come in good numbers, usually fairly early.  When I first saw a Readhead, I thought I would have trouble telling them from Canvasbacks due to their very similar colouration.  After seeing Canvasbacks a week or so later, I realized it would be very difficult to miss that distinct profile

Canvasback

Long-Tailed Ducks are always around in extremely large groups.  The males are always loud and boisterous, and the females strike me as cute. I first saw them through a scope off Fruitland Road in Stoney Creek on a very grey winter day, but have subsequently seen them at La Salle Marina, the Burlington Lift Bridge, and Spencer Smith Park. It turns out you don't usually need a scope to see this social duck - at the lift bridge the other day they were diving in the canal right at my feet. Their group diving fascinates me - a group of twenty-five or so will all dive within seconds of each other and resurface within seconds of each other.

Greater Scaup and Lesser Scaup are probably my biggest identification problem among the ducks seen in this area. One of the best ways of telling them apart (as far as I can tell) is the colour of the heads of the males, and that can vary a huge amount depending on the light. The first sentence from this page - Identification guide - Greater and Lesser Scaup - is not very encouraging: "Except for the wing marks, Greater and Lesser Scaup appear nearly identical in the field." This is something I will have to work on, and fortunately there are plenty of Scaup here to try to identify.

Long-Tailed Duck

I am always happy to photograph White-Winged Scoters and Surf Scoters. White-Winged are more common around here, but if there is a big enough group there is almost invariably a Surf Scoter in with them. The Surf Scoter's clownish appearance is always delightful, and the shy-but-not-too-shy nature makes them a challenging-but-not-too-challenging target. The Black Scoter is occasionally reported around here, but I have yet to see one.

Two White-Winged Scoters
Surf Scoter (centre)

When approaching a group of ducks at La Salle or the canal I am usually initially dismayed if there are Common Goldeneye among them. These extremely shy ducks will flush at the slightest perceived provocation, often flushing other ducks in the process. My desire to see the much more rare (around here) Barrow's Goldeneye and the challenge of getting better shots makes it worthwhile to try to get closer to a group of Goldeneyes.

Mergansers are another shy target. We get Common Merganser, Red-Breasted Merganser, and Hooded Merganser here, sometimes in good numbers, but are often out past the range of a good shot for my equipment. Last winter an American Wood Duck overwintered at La Salle, and several pairs of American Wigeon showed up fairly late in the winter. I don't think I have ever been to Windamere Basin and not seen a Northern Shoveler, nor have I ever seen a Shoveler anywhere else. Talk about your local speciality. Ruddy Ducks are often to be found in small numbers either at La Salle or Windamere.