Date: 7/3/25 1:51 pm From: Louisa Evers via groups.io <elouisa603...> Subject: Re: [IBLE] Black's Ck. Bird Preserve dark gull/jaeger(?) this evening
Linda Wentz and I went to Black's Creek this morning to try to find RL's
mystery gill-ish. We arrived at about 7 pm and scoped from the south shore.
Unfortunately that meant the sun interfered with seeing details. All the
dark gull-ish birds we could find were young CAGUs. Did see a common tern,
however.
On Wed, Jul 2, 2025 at 11:34 PM R L ROWLAND RONALD ROWLAND via groups.io
<rlrowland...> wrote:
> Hokay, out there in "ible-land", RL here. Been a while. Got a poser for
> those who might be interested.
> Was out at Black's Ck. Bird Preserve the last 1-1/2hrs. of daylight this
> evening, 02 July. Have not yet published my list for there. This first.
> Making a last scan with my scope (Swarovski 80mm HD, circa 1999) before
> departing I found a smallish-medium sized appearing, very dark
> gull-ish-looking bird on the water swimming toward a mess of CAGU's
> (mostly, some juvie RBGU's) on the far shore (North). Given the light
> conditions, right at sunset, cloudy I was only able to narrow the bird down
> one of three possibilities: 1) a juvie Heermann's, 2) juvie dark-morph
> Parasitic Jaeger, or 3) juvie dark-morph Pomarine Jaeger. I dismissed juvie
> dark-morph Long-tailed Jaeger as the bird I was looking at had too much
> bill. Also, no way was this bird any kind of a Coot.
> Rough description: bird smaller the nearby CAGU's it was moving toward,
> seemed comparable in size to a RBGU but much slimmer/trimmer appearing, not
> as bulky. again, bird body all dark, very dark brown to black, no other
> colors or even patterns discernible given the light conditions. not able to
> tell any bill coloration other than all dark and more gull-like than
> jaeger-esque. primaries longer than tail.
> At this point bird turned, butt toward me, and went ashore, preened
> momentarily then appeared to tuck in for the night. Again, I was not able
> to see any other coloration stand-out during the brief preening process. It
> did not join in with the other gulls, but stayed apart.
> I am leaning toward wanting to call Heermann's as opposed to the two
> jaegers, mainly based on bill appearance (size and shape), but, also the
> overall , shall I say, "daintiness" of this bird's appearance.
> I will try to get back out there early, but, awakenings before sunrise are
> very rough for me. I am a devout "Swing Shifter", sunrise is the middle of
> my night.
> If you need to contact me for more info that I may not have noted here,
> either of my phones (H) or (C), if you've the numbers, or, my email address
> is noted on my ebird Profile description page.
> Prove me right or prove me wrong, I would like to get this bird re-found
> and positively id'd. Right now I'm reluctant to call this bird unless a
> hard id can be determined. More eyes can only help. Hope the bird can be
> re-found.
> Good Luck to you who may try for it and Continued Good Birding to all. RL
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--
Louisa Evers
<elouisa603...>
Take care of the birds and you take care of the world
