At 4:15PM on Sat. a 2nd basic Iceland (Kumlien's) Gull stopped at the Rt. 121
bridge at Little Seneca Reservoir, but it stayed only a few minutes. This is
the third different plumaged Iceland Gull at the lake this winter.
At 4PM an adult Lesser Black-backed dropped in for a few minutes. It also did
not hang around.
One of the Common Goldeneyes was in a plumage I did not understand. Basically
like a female Common Goldeneye, but with the breast strikingly white and with
extensive white on the scapulars, forming white patch along the upper body. I
wondered if it could be a young male in transition, but there was no white
coming in between the bill and the eye, and there was a fair amount of yellow on
the bill. I can find no reference to young males having yellow on the bill
(Birds of the Western Palearctic mentions an olive band on juvenile bills.) I'm
now wondering if it was a leucistic female Common Goldeneye.
Dave Czaplak |