Willcox II: Larids
July 24th, 2007 by Rick Wright
The sharp-eyed will have noticed the alternate-plumaged Black Tern in one of the images from my last ‘post’; there were two there, perching on the mud like little skimmers and skimming the water like giant moths. And they were joined by what counts in southeast Arizona as a gull flock: a single Franklin’s Gull and this creature.
Help.
I called it a California Gull, but the ratty beast was thought by others to be a Ring-bill. The iris was not yellow, but was notably paler brown than the pupil; the orbital ring wasn’t visible. I was basing my identification largely on the length of that pencil-like bill, but given how nearly naked the head was, the bill may have looked longer than it would have on a normally feathered face.
Ideas?
