Vermont Rare Bird Reports 2024

Jon Erickson

Morning following the passage of the remnants of tropical storm Debby. Air and water temps relatively close (low to mid 70's).

Kowa TSN-2, 15-60X

I have seen many Laughing Gulls along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and have seen many juvenile birds. I have never seen a juvenile Franklin's Gull, one of the species to be eliminated.

Open water of Lake Champlain north and west of the Crown Point Bridge.

Flying only. No foraging. One very quick landing on the Lake and the bird was briefly dive-bombed by a Tree Swallow.

None

First observed at 0610 for about 8 minutes. The bird was flying south down the middle of the Lake and immediately caught our attention because this was such a dark bird. It headed toward Crown Point Historical Park, came relatively close to shore, and then flew back to the north where we had some of our better views until the bird disappeared to the north. At about 0705, we relocated the bird as it once again flew south and then back north again. After a few back and forths, the bird started to gain altitude and eventually we lost track of it as it appeared to be searching for an exit from Lake Champlain without crossing under the Crown Point Bridge.

Typical gull-shape; long, slender wings and compact body. Appeared to be roughly slightly smaller than a Ring-billed Gull, but we never had a direct comparison.

Grayish crown, white throat, dark line through the eye.

Dark bill, feet not observed.

Relatively dark gray

Dark gray back, rump clean white

Primaries and primary coverts black. Secondary coverts darker gray with black or very dark gray ends to the secondaries.

Belly white. Upper breast smudgy gray-brown.

Black band at end of tail. In flight or in photos, I couldn't determine if the band went completely across the tail or if the outer rectrices were white.

Several features rule out our common breeding gulls. The white belly, white rump, and dark primaries and primary coverts are inconsistent with juvenile Ring-billed and Herring Gulls. It is somewhat more difficult to rule out a juvenile Franklin's Gull. The blacker primaries and primary coverts (compared to deep gray in FRGU) and the darker gray secondary coverts (compared to gray-brown in FRGU) lean more toward LAGU. The overall smudginess of the upper breast seems to be a better fit for LAGU as many of the pictures I have found of juvenile FRGU show a much whiter breast.

Given the passage of TS Debby, Laughing Gull seems like a likely candidate to show up on Lake Champlain. There were several inland records in inland PA and along the Hudson River today. However, there was also a record of an adult Franklin's Gull.

Although we certainly saw the bird in VT waters, he/she was also in NY waters for portions of the observation.