A Day at the Dump! (or, "finally some exciting gulls")

On Monday around noon I got a call from Cliff Weisse - a birder from Island Park who was on this side of the state on business and doing some birding. In the years since I first met Cliff and starting birding with him and/or exchanging notes on bird identification, I've learned that when he calls out of the blue, it usually means he's found something good. Thus, given that I had tons of work to do and not enough time in which to do it, when the phone rang & I saw his name, I got that sinking feeling that said, "Here's another pot-shot at my productivity ....". I was right, he had just seen a potential Iceland Gull (a species with 11 prior reports in the state and none since 2002) at the Canyon County landfill (Pickle's Butte) which sits just a few miles S of Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge and a few miles E of the Snake River. Thus, (if you're a gull :-) the dump is a great place to grab a quick bite of something tasty and then head to a body of water to wash it down!

potential Iceland Gull at Pickle's Butte, Feb 23, 2009 - photo by Cliff Weisse
please feel free to post comments on the ID of this bird

Fortunately for me, Cliff said the gulls had just gotten up and flown away so no need to rush out there. That gave me the rest of Monday and into the late night hours to finish editing a manuscript (officially accepted Wednesday!!!) and finish writing the exam I'd be giving to my Conservation Biology class on Tuesday afternoon. I wasn't sure until I woke up on Tuesday whether I was going to go 'chase the bird' or not. The thing is ... birding in a landfill is a lot harder to justify playing hooky for than birding in the mountains or desert or other natural area. After all, most of us get into birding for aesthetic reasons - fascination with and/or love for nature and b/c it's an outlet for connecting with nature - and I don't really 'peace out' or do a lot of 'bonding with the scenery' at the dump! Thus, even for an Iceland Gull (a bird I've wanted to see out West for a long time), I really had to twist my arm .....

I met Cliff out there on Tuesday AM and he said he'd already seen 'the bird' as well as a few pretty pale Thayer's Gulls (the closest look-alike and closest relative for an Iceland) so we set to looking for it. Cliff also mentioned having seen a 1st-winter Mew Gull and I quickly was able to pick that out (no pics - too preoccupied with finding 'the bird'). Pretty soon, Cliff called out, "Here's a Glaucous!" and, though it took me a few moments, I was able to locate a 1st-winter Glaucous Gull as it flew around with other gulls. We were able to enjoy many good looks at this bird over the next hour. Even though this is one of the more frequent of the 'rare' gulls to appear in Idaho, this is only the 2nd I've seen in the state!! Thus, worth the trip already ...

1st-winter Glaucous Gull (center - photo by Jay Carlisle) - note the pale wingtips and the long pink bill with the dark tip

another view of the same Glaucous Gull - photo by Jay Carlisle

In spite of the very gusty winds (it really was a challenge to stay focused with shaking scopes and all!) and even though it left with a large groups of gulls after about 30 minutes (maybe because it had just swallowed a HUGE landfill morsel that we saw it gorge down while taking flight at one point), we were able to get several views of the potential Iceland - both perched and in flight. I say 'potential Iceland' b/c this is a tough ID and Cliff & I (the only ones to have decent, if any, views of this bird) are still uncertain if we can rule out a hybrid with Thayer's Gull. That said, at one point I could see the potential Iceland on the ground near the Glaucous and both appeared similarly pale (the Glaucous maybe being a touch paler). The big issue for me is that the primaries appear darker than the body and that's not seen on most Icelands (although some similar-looking birds from within the normal range of Iceland Gulls can be found at this link: http://www.pbase.com/jpkln/kumliens_1). Thus, more research .... and hopefully more views of the bird.

.... AND, back to that aesthetic aspect of birding, into the evening on Tuesday I was still removing sand (yes, landfill sand!) from my ears as the wind caused a frequent sand-blasting effect!

Aside from the gulls, we also ran into fellow bird-nuts Cheryl Huizinga, RL Rowland, and Mark Collie out at Pickle's Butte.... Assuming this does turn out to be an Iceland, we saw 7 gull species on Tues, including a 1st winter Glaucous, a 1st winter Mew, several Thayer's, several Herring, and the hordes of California and Ring-billed. Also a potential Glaucous-winged/Herring hybrid ...

But, I haven't counted the Iceland for my list so Heidi still has a portion of the lead (as the Glaucous Gull brought me to a tie!) ....

Jay