The Bonaparte’s Gull is on top and the Kildeer is on the bottom for size comparison.  During breeding, the Bonaparte’s Gull has a black head with white stripes on the top and bottom of their eyes.  These gulls have already started to change into their winter plumage, which is a white head with black smudges near their ear hole.  Below is a picture of a Bonaparte’s Gull in transition taken July 24, 2010.

Bonaparte’s Gulls eat small fish, tadpoles and insects.  They enjoy eating from the Great Salt Lake during the summer because of the brine flies.  These next pictures are insane.  There were so many flies that the gulls didn’t even have to make an effort to eat.  They simply opened their beaks and the flies swarmed inside.

These pictures also give you a good idea of how the same species can molt at different times.

I hope those flies are delicious.

When you’ve had enough fly appetizers, there are tadpoles for the main course.

This isn’t a Bonaparte’s Gull, but it’s amazing how many flies are covering the gull.

I’m so glad these flies don’t bite people.

California Gulls are more difficult to identify.  The key is to look at the eye ring, the beak coloring and the legs.  Below is a California Gull in winter plumage.  The eye ring is orange, the the beak has black on the bottom and the top (but not in the shape of a ring) and the legs are yellow/green.

The California Gull only has a white head during breeding season.  The winter plumage is below.

Ring bills have similar winter plumage, but their beaks only have black.

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I leave you with a somewhat morbid yet beautiful picture of a Ring-Billed Gull standing among the carp skeletons after the poisoning of the carp at Farmington Bay.

There are two long roads that make nice walkways for looking at the ducks.

Some fishermen drilled through the ice to fish.  The Ring-Billed Gulls were watching the fishermen intently, hoping that they could snag a fish or at least have some scraps after the fishermen clean the fish.

It’s amazing how many gulls are in Utah.  The picture below is from Farmington Bay.  The ice was covered in birds.

Ring-Billed Gulls are the easiest Utah gull to identify.  There’s no wondering about whether the eyes are pink or the wings have too much grey.  These birds have a black ring on the beaks.  That’s all you need to know.

But if you’d like more specifics, they have yellow eyes, yellow feet, and spots and streaks on their heads.  Second winter California gulls also have a black ring on their beaks, but it’s barely a ring because there is very little yellow at the tip of their beaks.  Also, their eyes are black and their feet are greenish/yellow.  The Ring-Billed Gull has very distinctive yellow eyes that are lined in red.

In the picture below, you can see the black tips on the primary feathers.  That’s very common in gulls.  But on the left wing, can you make out a patch of white in the middle of the black?  The white patch is called a mirror.  People that are much more discerning than me can identify a gull based on the pattern of the mirror.

Since there are tons of gulls in Utah, I should start studying these things more closely.

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I am going to miss California.  I will miss the ocean most of all.

and the huge supply of different kinds of birds

in every tree

but I’m pretty excited about the new birds that I’m going to see and the constant presence of the mountains

It’s been snowing all day today.  I forgot how quiet everything is when it snows.  When I was shoveling I saw dark-eyed juncos, sparrows, and a woodpecker!  I’ve set up one feeder and I’m researching suet feeders and heated bird baths.  So while winter rages, I’ll have lots of posts about backyard birding.

Gulls are so hard to identify. I mean, I don’t even know where to begin with the picture below. What’s with the grey feet? That’s not in my field guides.

I can, however, identify Western Gulls. The first step in narrowing down gulls is to look at the feet. California Gulls have yellow feet. Herring Gulls, Thayer Gulls, and Western Gulls have pink feet.

They’re not intimidated by humans.

These were taken in Monterey, where the skies are blue, unlike lovely gray Pescadero.

Here is a close-up of two.  Aren’t they beautiful?

I really like the lighter brown feathers on their wings.  They look distinct in the above picture, but against other backgrounds, the brown helps them blend completely.

Below is a comparison of the sandpipers with a Heermann’s Gull for size.  They’re very small birds.

Western Sandpipers eat aquatic insects, worms, small mollusks, and crustaceans from shallow water.  The sandpipers to the left of the gull above are searching for food.

I was photographing the sandpipers in some shallow water when I discovered a huge group of them napping and preening.  I almost walked into them, they were so well hidden.  You see the brown section at the bottom of the photograph?  Those are birds!

When you are close to them, you can hear the cheep noises that they constantly make.

Below is an even better picture.  You can really see how they blend here.

I saw them in other sections of the beach and when they were not eating, they always chose to be near debris that served as camouflage.

I’ve been tracking my life list of birds on Birdpost and today’s discoveries put me up to 82.

During the first spring season that the Mormons were in Utah, a plague of Mormon crickets (katydids) swarmed the crops.  The katydids would eat the crops and then eat any katydids left on the plants in an act of cannibalism that horrified the Mormons.  The crops were disappearing; 4,000 Mormons were facing starvation.  

In June, seagulls came and rescued the crops by eating all the katydids.  The crops were saved and the Mormons were spared!

The incident is called “The Miracle of the Gulls” and the California gulls are Utah’s state birds.  To commemorate the miracle, Temple Square has a Seagull Monument.  

The monument has a plaque that states:  ”Seagull monument erected in grateful remembrance of the mercy of God to the Mormon pioneers.”

Temple Square is really beautiful; I recommend visiting.  The square is huge and you can see the buildings from other parts of the city because they’re so tall.

I was trying to be artistic with the picture above.  All the cranes in SLC have an American flag attached, so I captured the flag in between the towers (it’s very small in the picture).

This is a brown pelican. I like how his primary feathers flip upwards. (Photo by Jon)

The heermann’s gull curves his wings in the same shape as the waves.

Here you can see three different primaries curving at the tips.

The white-crowned sparrow moves so fast, his wings are almost a blur.

This was taken several weeks ago in San Gregorio. I like the guy on the left. It looks like he’s telling us to leave his territory. “Get out!”

Today we went to Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. I saw the cherry-headed conures that live outside. They moved too fast to get any pictures, but just being near them was a thrill. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the documentary, the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is an excellent movie.