[EBB Sightings] that Franklin's gull

The trees are dead because the irrigation system on the island has quit
working.

Frankie was still there this evening around 6 pm. No sign of the Chat but I
was rewarded with a Swainson's Thrush for my efforts. It was in the "blue
spruce" in front of the Garden Center. I also noticed a number of fairly
fresh looking sapsucker holes in that tree. I've never noticed a sapsucker
in the park.

Bruce Mast
Oakland, CA
510-435-1371
 
________________________________________
From: sightings-admin at diabloaudubon.com
[mailto:sightings-admin at diabloaudubon.com] On Behalf Of Phila Rogers
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 4:15 PM
To: sightings
Subject: [EBB Sightings] that Franklin's gull

If you haven't seen it yet, make sure you visit the bird feeding area at
Lake Merritt for the Franklin's gull.  Emily Strauss and I found it easily
this morning just where it was supposed to be -- on the white boom nearest
shore just north of the feeding area.  The bird was a lifer for me but more
important a truly thrilling experience as this exquisite bird is unlike any
gull I know.  The black head, thick white eye ring, the red-tipped bill, the
black legs and impeccable plumage and diminutive size was quite enough, but
then you add a suffusion of pink orange that rises from the white breast up
and around the nape and --WOW!  (I'll be back tomorrow).  The other gulls --
mostly ring-bill and California's -- appear to resent this solitary,
straying beauty and give it no peace.
 
On a technical point, the bill is only red-tipped (not all red) and the legs
appear to be entirely black unlike the mature male in breeding plumage shown
in my field guides.
 
While you're there, check out all the breeding birds on the islands -- both
egrets, cormorants, black-crowned night herons, plumes galore and chicks
begging in the nest.  Why are the trees dead on the outermost island?  The
skeletons are nice frames for the cormorant nests but the fallen limbs
littering the ground make me wonder in the rest of the tree is soon to
follow.
 
Phila Rogers