Our Birding Buddy Carl is a patient sort of birder. When we arrived at Holland State Park there were about 700 gulls on the beach – 85% Ring-billed Gulls, 15% Herring Gulls. Carl dutifully set up his scope and began to look at each one of them. After a few minutes he stepped back and announced that the scope was trained on a juvenile Lesser Black-Backed Gull. A veritable needle in the haystack but Carl was able to pick it out from the other gulls because of its salt-and-pepper head and relatively darker body. Adults of this species have white heads and body with black wings.
I had to get some pictures of it (because, you know, it was a juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull). I was able to get close enough to it to take the following two shots:
A.
B.
The two shots are almost identical but I like A. better than B. Can you see why? Respond to the email or write your comment in the post.
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