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Subject: Tierra Verde & Sunshine Skyway bridge 121608 birdPIX
Hi all,
This afternoon I visited Tierra Verde & Sunshine Skyway bridge Partly, I wanted to visit the bridges on I-275 just north of the main bridge to scout the area for the black backed gulls that frequent the area in preparation for the St. Pete CBC this coming Saturday.
I grabbed a few shots of an Osprey feeding on its fish dinner. I did find a few White Ibis at Tierra Verde.
At Tierra Verde the gulls that I have id’ed as Lesser Black-backed Gulls are obviously that LBBG – yellow legs, dark back. The Gull on the Sunshine Skyway bridge is a Great Black-backed Gull. I could only stop here for just a minute or so with traffic whipping past me. At no time did I get to look at the legs of the bridge gull. Under certain light conditions the back can look blackish on a LBBG – the lighting was not good with this bird. Once home with the stuff on the computer I was able to determine that this is a GBBG due to the very white head & neck of the bird.
My field guide references indicate that the extensive head & neck streaking or mottling in non-breeding plumage occurs in Lesser Black-backed Gull. While the head & neck of the Great Black-backed Gull is snow white without any markings. In my last birdPIX post I misidentified the “Lesser Black-backed Gull” as that it should have been labeled as a GBBG.
This is what I love about digital bird photography. Take several shots of a given bird and take it home to id it on the computer with field guide references at hand.
I took shots of White Ibis, Osprey, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull – The following links are to the pix of these birds:
White Ibis
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9062150@N07/3114879972/
Osprey
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9062150@N07/3114880282/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9062150@N07/3114050923/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9062150@N07/3114050677/
Herring Gull
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9062150@N07/3114880202/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9062150@N07/3114050603/
Lesser Black-backed Gull
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9062150@N07/3114050531/
Great Black-backed Gull
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9062150@N07/3114050833/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9062150@N07/3114050445/
Happy birding!
David Laliberte
St. Pete, FL
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