Date: 11/17/25 9:40 am From: Grigory Heaton via groups.io <g.heaton...> Subject: [LACoBirds] Candidate Vega gull at Malibu lagoon + Malibu storm birding (Nov. 16 2025)
Hi all,
I had a 1st cycle Vega gull candidate last night at Malibu lagoon, with a flock of ~50 gulls near the mouth of the lagoon. The bird is generally quite pale with an extreme (for American herring) tail band in flight and very white, sparsely marked undertail coverts reminiscent of a lesser black-backed gull. Despite the tail band being way more extreme than any I've ever seen on AH, I had been hesitant to call it anything beyond an extremely weird American herring due to thinking the greater coverts and scapulars were patterned incorrectly for Vega, but from feedback it seems like this may not be an issue. With the heavy caveat that the ID of this bird is definitely not set in stone, I wanted to get the word out.
Malibu in general was absolutely beautiful during the storm, in my opinion the best time to visit with cool temperatures and barely any people or traffic. Other notable birds at the lagoon were a flock of 4 American white pelicans (my first time seeing any in Malibu and only my second time seeing this more inland species on the beach in LA in general) and a pair of Cackling geese that landed on the beach around sunset with a larger Canada goose flock.
I also made a brief stop at Topanga lagoon on the way out, my first stop here since the fires - the small lagoon is fully breached and flowing out to sea with all the rain. A small gull flock was present, with nothing unusual, but I've had lesser black-backed gull here in the past so it's always worth a quick stop in winter if parking is available.
Happy gulling season! The LA river near the Atlantic bridge has been picking up as well, with all of the expected Thayer's/GW/hybrids present yesterday afternoon - seems like it's only a matter of time before something unusual shows up there in the coming months.
