Hi all --

We both think that the Franklin's gull we found in the rain yesterday is the same one seen by others  -- viewing conditions yesterday and today were quite different and color and detail was not as easily made out yesterday, thanks to the downpour.

Barry visited some of the literature and writes this: 
"The Franklin’s Gull Gail and I saw yesterday at Hains Point looked to us to be an adult, or pretty close to it – As far as we could see it had a complete black hood and bold white eye crescents. The white panel or bar separating the black on the primaries from the grey wing and mantle, as well as the white primary tips, were obvious both when the bird was in flight and on the ground. The bill and soft parts looked more dark than red but that was undoubtedly the light. There is a nice photo of adult and second summer Franklin's Gulls together in flight in "Gulls of North America, Europe and Asia." The bird we saw looked closer to the adult in the photo than the second summer bird. Also looking at the various photos in this book,  there seems to be a fair degree of variation amongst adults in summer plumage. Having said this, the bird yesterday did not look as "pristine" as the bird found by Paul over a week ago, and it lacked the pale pinkish shade to the underparts that bird had. 
This maybe simply the result of timing as some birds take longer than others to reach full breeding plumage."

Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper
Colesville, MD