Hi Tom,

I recently bought a book on Gulls, to hopefully improve my non-existent
Gull ID skills.
Your bird looks like the photo of a first summer alternate Bonaparte's Gull
in "Gulls of the Americas" by Howell and Dunn. It doesn't look like any of
the Franklin's pics in the book, which all appear much darker on the back.
I attached a pic of the photo that seems to match, that probably won't go
thru to the group. I can send the photo to anyone else who would like to
see it.

Trish Gussler, Anaheim

On Sun, Jun 26, 2016 at 9:38 AM, ocean2trail@...
[OrangeCountyBirding] wrote:

Yesterday I saw mystery gull on the shore of Barbara's Lake in Laguna
Coast Wilderness Park. I'm not a gull expert by any stretch of the
imagination, but it looked to me like it might be a Franklin's Gull. I
posted a few terrible digiscoped photos taken from across the lake through
heat shimmer. I tried to put them into the "11 Skua Gulls & Terns"folder,
but can't guarantee that's where they ended up. (Yahoo Groups is not very
user friendly.) Any help with identification would be appreciated.
Barbara's Lake is one of the Laguna Lakes, the only natural lakes in
Orange County. You can get there by parking at the Nix Nature Center on
the west side of Laguna Canyon Road (CA-133), and taking a trail about half
a mile under the highway to the lake. You can also get there by parking at
the James Dilley Preserve on the east side of Laguna Canyon (CA-133, just
north of CA-73 toll road) and taking the Lake Trail north about a mile to
the lake. It's drying up pretty quickly, so there's no way of knowing how
long the water will last.
Other birds of interest included half a dozen White-faced Ibis, 2 pair of
Black-necked Stilts (one pair had 4 chicks), and 2 Yellowlegs (they were a
long way away, and I didn't try to ID greater vs. lesser). There was also
a Great Blue Heron, a Great Egret, and 10 Snowy Egret. There were Killdeer
present, and they might have a chick (I saw a nondescript pre-flight bird
close to the reeds, but couldn't get a good look due to a poor viewing
angle and severe heat shimmer). The only waterfowl left were Mallards with
several ducklings. I also had a Black-headed Grosbeak and 2
Yellow-breasted Chat in the trees along the south shore.
See you on the trails,
Tom Eastman

Costa Mesa