I admittedly don't like gulls but a thoughtful phone call from Skip yesterday morning from Whitby harbour was a potential Lifer for me, so I sucked it up and headed south for the lake. I knew I was in the right spot when I was momentarily blinded by John's bright red baseball cap Go, Leafs, Go! as I neared the harbour.
This dark-mantled gull was the possible candidate for a Slaty-backed Gull, a definite rarity for this side of the country:
But alas, after extensive analysis of photos by North American gull expert Jean Iron, it was deemed to be a Lesser Black-backed Gull, a semi-decent bird in its own right, as well as both a Winter and Year bird for me:
The other treat this week was the return of a male Harlequin Duck to our harbour, could this be the same handsome bird we saw here back in early December??
Here's this week's boy under despicable lighting conditions on Thursday, so his colours are totally washed out:
My Winter List at the end of the week now stands at eighty-seven species, and my Year List at seventy-eight.
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