Thanks to Peder for getting the earlier message out.  Hopefully the advance 

notice of our message tonight will allow some of you the opportunity to try 

and look for this bird.  The best time is not until midday as you will be 

looking generally east and the sun will be a problem early in the day.  You 

will need a scope.



We are well aware how hard it is to differentiate subadult Franklin's and 

Laughing gulls.  In fact it may not be possible without a better (and closer 

look) than we had today.  Nevertheless, we believe that this is probably a 

Laughing Gull because of several factors.  All these points refer to a 

standing and preening gull.  We were never able to see it in flight.  The 

dark gray back clearly points to one of these two species.  Black-headed 

Gull, while having a darker head, is eliminated because of its' lighter back 

color.



Some of the coverts and tertials appeard to have substantial remnants of 

juvenile or first winter plumage.  This generally brown plumage is present 

in this area in a first winter Franklin's Gull or a first summer Laughing 

Gull according to Olson and Larsson (Gulls of North America, Europe, and 

Asia.)  This is August so a first winter plumage would have to be really 

severely retarded by nearly six months or so and we don't believe that this 

is realistic.  We should add that when we first saw this bird we suspected 

Laughing Gull because we have never seen a Franklin's that looked like this 

anywhere near this time of year.  It just didn't look right for a Franklin's 

at all.



The tips of the tertials appeared to display no white edging.  Franklin's 

Gulls tend to show some very minimal white as early as first winter and in 

first summer they show extensive white edging to the tertials.  Laughing 

Gulls tend to not show white edging to the tertials until the second winter 

phase.  In first summer and first winter white edging is very minimal.  Even 

accounting for the distance that we were viewing this bird, we believe that 

we would have been able to see white edging if it was more than very 

minimal.  By the way we were viewing this bird with the bright sun behind us 

(occasionally behind light clouds) and with enough of a breeze that we 

experienced no heat waves through our 50 power scopes.



The folded wing tips did not show any white spotting.  Franklin's Gulls 

shows white spotting (from the wing tips) as early as first summer while 

Laughing Gull does not show much white spotting till the adult plumage.  One 

of us got a good long look at the top of a raised wing (while the bird was 

preening) and no white was evident between the black tips and the dark gray 

top area of the wing.  David Sibley in his guide (the only one we had with 

us at the time) shows some white in this raised wing area as early as first 

summer for Franklin's and basically never in Laughing Gull.



From looking at the Sibley Guide today, and Olson and Larsson tonight, it 

appears that the bottom of the wing is somewhat diagnostic in 

differentiating these two species.  As I said we were unable to see this 

bird in flight.  One of us got a short look at the bottom of one wing while 

it was preeening and felt that the wing showed a lot of darkness as compared 

to what you would see in a Franklin's Gull.  Franklin's tend to be very 

white in the underwing area except for the black tip while Laughing tends to 

show more extensive dark areas.  Clearly we probably did not get a good 

enough look at this underwing area.



Laughing Gull has a longer bill than a Franklin's Gull.  We were not able to 

tell anything with the distant study we had of this bird.  With no 

comparison the length seemed to be of no help to us in figuring this out.



The bird did not have the typical dark head of these species in adult 

plumage but it did show extensive shading of black throughout the head. 

Generally summer subadult Franklin's have their black primarily on the back 

half of the head.  Laughing tends to have black in more extensive areas of 

the head although not the deep black of adults.  We definitely felt this 

favored Laughing Gull.



Similar to this is the fact that Franklin's Gull from first winter on shows 

a very clean white neck, chest, and side of chest while Laughing Gull shows 

some smudging in these areas.  Depending on which book you look at you get a 

different idea of how much smudging is on the Laughing Gull but both books 

show this very clearly until they reach adult plumage.  The bird today had 

smudging on the neck and the sides of the chest.  It didn't appear to have 

much in the center of the chest but it was very clearly on the sides and 

neck.



We should add that we looked at this bird for well over and hour and a half, 

during which time the bird did little except walk around along the edge of 

one of the islands that the gulls were on.  When we looked away for a short 

time one of the numerous eagles or the locally persistent Peregrine Falcon 

flew low over the gulls and they shuffled their position.  We were unable to 

refind the gull after that point.  We do not believe that it left the area. 

It probably just shuffled to the back of the flock or the back of the island 

and we were blocked from seeing it.  In future days it may take more than 

one stop at this place to find it.



Something to consider is what species is more likely in this area at this 

time of year.  We believe that the closest nesting area for Franklin's Gull 

would be Agassiz NWR although nonbreeding birds are seen further south off 

and on in western MN.  We haven't looked this up but suspect based on our 

experience that nearly all of these sightings of these nonbreeding birds are 

in the northwestern quarter of MN this time of year.  Laughing Gulls are 

regularly reported in Missouri and we think occasionally in southern Iowa 

along the Mississippi River.  We have not researched this so somebody may 

want to correct or expand on this info.  So Houston County is kind of in the 

middle between these two regions.  Remember that last summer Chris Wood 

documented an adult Laughing Gull from this area of MN about this same time.



More research is to be done.  Hopefully somebody will find this bird and be 

able to digiscope it.  We took a couple of very long shots today but 

remember that we use film so don't expect the photos to be of much help.  A 

good digiscoper would have done well today.  And a last note.  We have very 

little experience with Laughing Gull and very extensive experience with 

Franklin's Gull.  This whole thing started because this bird did not look 

right for Franklin's Gull.



Dennis and Barbara Martin

Shorewood, MN

[log in to unmask]



----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Peder Svingen" <[log in to unmask]>

To: <[log in to unmask]>

Sent: Saturday, August 07, 2010 6:54 PM

Subject: [mou-net] possible Laughing Gull, Houston County





> Dennis Martin just called and asked me to post his sighting of a possible 

> first-cycle Laughing Gull in Houston County. The bird is sitting on an 

> island in the river (the same island where an avocet was seen last week) 

> about a quarter mile east of the wooden viewing platform along highway 26, 

> approximately 4 miles south of Brownsville. Due to the distance he has 

> been unable to evaluate bill size or shape, and he has not seen the bird 

> in flight. The bird is amongst a flock of several hundred Ring-billed 

> Gulls and looks smaller than all of the adjacent Ring-billeds. Dennis 

> stated that the folded primaries are solidly black and that its back is 

> clearly darker gray than the Ring-billeds, with brownish tertials. 

> Although the bird has extended its wings while preening, he has not been 

> able to see the ventral surface of its remiges and he has not seen its 

> tail pattern.

>

> Dennis is keenly aware of how difficult it can be to distinguish 

> Franklin's and Laughing gulls and hopes that other birders are able to 

> refind this bird. In addition to Gulls of the Americas (Howell and Dunn) 

> and other books specifically addressing gull identification, birders may 

> wish to consult Kenn Kaufman's Advanced Birding field guide for further 

> guidance.

>

> Thanks to Dennis for his timely report.

>

> --

> Peder H. Svingen

> Duluth, MN 



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