Fall sets in! Sabine's Gulls arrive!
The fall is really just setting in here in Colorado and the one bird I keep an eye out for is Sabine's Gulls. They typically arrive near the end of September here on the Front Range and they usually carry through the end of October for their primary time of migration. This year has been a little slow, but things are picking up and Colorado birders are now seeing these birds in typical fashion. During that time frame, these guys usually show up on the larger lakes occupying their flight in the deepest parts of the water. I have seen these birds on smaller ponds, but not too often. Sabine's Gulls are one of the more easy to identify gulls given a very distinct flight and wing pattern they have.
Notice the brown speckled shading above on the mantle and some of the wing coverts. This is indicative of a juvenile of which accounts for most of the Sabine's Gulls in Colorado. This area would be gray on an adult to go along with a very distinctive black hood. The white and black wedges on the wings are on the bird year-round and usually can be spotted from a distance. These juveniles will retain their feathers until after their fall migration on their wintering grounds on the southern west coast of the United States staying mainly pelagic during those months.
Now, I give Bill Schmoker (photographer) some credit here, because rarely do you get looks like this, but here you can even seen thick terminal tail-band that only juveniles will have.
Kittiwakes can look superficially similar, but their flight style is completely different. Sabine's Gull flies like a medium-sized tern. Their wingbeat's are choppy and direct and they will change their body angle erratically. Often enough in the middle of the lake in the interior of the United States this allows the flight style to be a key determining factor in identifying these guys. I always will recommend a high-end scope with no more that a 30x magnification eyepiece to ensure that you will be allowed a maximum field of view as well.
These main attribiutes are the biggest keys to success and I certainly hope you can find one in the field.
I would like to thank Bill Schmoker (Nikon Birding ProStaff), whom provided these photographs for this post. He uses a Nikon D2X and a 200-400 AF-S VR F/4 Nikkor lens. I encourage everyone to check out his gallery linked here for photographs of over 550 species.
I can't wait to head out today to try and find one of these guys myself. Good Birding!
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