Jan 6 (Day 6) - Glostah to Bahston

Wow! What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was crystal clear with temperatures in the upper 20s.  Today was rainy, foggy, and close to 50F. It was actually fine riding weather, and as visibility was VERY limited, I decided to just power down to Boston this morning. Here is a map of the 37 mile route. I did hear golden-crowned kinglet on my ride. This is the only bird I added to the list today.

I did make one birding stop at Revere Beach. I had heard that thousands of gulls had congregated here in the past three days to feast on the clams that washed up during the storm on January 2. Visibility was terrible given the rain and fog, but I was able to tease out ~20 iceland gulls and 2 glaucous gulls from the throngs of herring, ring-billed, and great black-backed. I also found one very interesting gull that I could not definitely identify. I have solicited opinions from some very good birders here in Massachusetts, and the general consensus is that this bird sits somewhere between Kumlien's and Thayer's. Identifying these gulls can be a real challenge, and in many cases, this bird for example, it is virtually impossible to reach a definitive identification. Here are a few photos off the bird, presented without a painful diagnostic analysis.

***Click thumbs for larger images***

Feel free to chime in if gull identification is your forte! Just leave a comment with your thoughts.