Another Tagged Gull
This morning I walked around Prospect Park for a few hours. Nothing majorly new, except for one Cooper’s Hawk in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. The feeders were shockingly quiet. Not a bird to be seen. I look for the American Pipit that’s been reported repeatedly on the Long Meadow over the last couple of weeks, but wiffed again even though another birder found it later. However, I did find another wing tagged Ring-billed Gull on Prospect Lake, this one a first winter bird. As best I can make out its number is A288:
Likely all the wing tagged gulls that are showing up lately are coming from Massachusetts where Dr. Tom French has been banding gulls. I should know more shortly. Multiple birders have been reporting them around the city. This is possibly the fourth from Prospect Lake alone.
Update: yep, this bird was banded at the Quinsigamond State Park in Worcester County, Massachusetts on October 27, 2009, just a few months before I saw it. Sex unknown and born in 2008 or earlier. (Probably 2008 would be my guess based on the bird’s plumage when I found it.)
Total species count for the morning was a respectable 27:
- Canada Goose
- Mute Swan
- American Black Duck
- Mallard
- Northern Shoveler
- Bufflehead
- Ruddy Duck
- American Coot
- Ring-billed Gull
- Herring Gull
- Great Black-backed Gull
- Rock Pigeon
- Mourning Dove
- Cooper’s Hawk
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Downy Woodpecker
- Blue Jay
- American Crow
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Tufted Titmouse
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Carolina Wren
- Hermit Thrush
- European Starling
- White-throated Sparrow
- Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)
- Northern Cardinal
