Some Recent Sightings

The Avon River has been a great place for gulls over the last couple weeks.  Among the usual species, iceland, thayers, glaucous and great black backed gulls have been recently observed.

When I heard that the great black backed gulls were around today, I decided to check them out.  Arriving at the big cluster of gulls, it was easy to quickly pick out a couple great black-backed.

They were pretty easy to distinguish from the surrounding herring gulls.

I came across a hen pintail further down the river associating with the mallards.  It came up as a rare species on eBird, but with this mild weather it isn't a surprise that some species would be moving northward earlier than usual.

Among the mallards, it is quite easy to find many 'farm duck' crosses.  However today I found what appears to be a mallard-black duck cross, not something I often see.

Back home I found my first robin of the year the other day.  It's been an unusual winter so it probably didn't go far this winter.  It was a bit camera shy and wouldn't come out of the brush.

I'll end with a white-breasted nuthatch at the peanut feeder.