Date: 5/2/2020
Location: Manhattan Beach
Site Description: Urban Area near a beach. It is surrounded by houses and there is a beach 4 blocks west. There is also a park about 4 blocks east.
Species Account:
Gulls, in general, are very difficult to disguise between each other but the one thing I feel like this was for sure a western gull because of the pink legs, red dot on the lower bill, black tail, white torso, and gray wings. I could be wrong but it looks exactly like the western gull in the pictures on ebird. Overall I got a good glimpse of this single gull flying to the beach. There was not much flapping action at it was mainly gliding to the beach and lost sight of it since it flew over a house. I have seen these birds all over Manhattan Beach and I don’t like them. I am not a fan since they poo everywhere. They also go through my stuff often if I leave a sweater on the beach and they take things if its food. Overall a cool bird but I am not a fan. This bird is mainly seen in beach parking lots. It was strange to see this one alone but I have seen them alone before but they can also be seen in huge flocks it’s not as much as the sanitation site with the birds we saw at the end but it’s enough that it makes it hard to count.
Common Name: Western Gull
Species: Larus Occidentalis
Family: Lardiae
Order: Charadriformes
Observations: 501,438
Area: North America mainly the West Coast
Narrative:
So I woke up and started birding on my patio. This was the first thing I did since I need to get these done. The weather was nice to the bird. Around the mid-70s with a slight breeze and the sun out. I could not ask for better weather. SO I begin by seeing a crow fly by. I look around and it’s difficult to see bird since they are so far away to ID so I only looked at the ones close by that I could get a positive ID on. There were a couple of ravens that landed on the house next to use and a crow landed on the electricity wires. I also saw a hummingbird land on it too. I did not see any loops made by the hummingbird because while I was about to take a picture the bird just peaced out and went on its merry way. I think it was a nice end to birding for the semester. It was chill and not that exciting but relaxing. I wish we could have done more with the class since that was really funny.
Bird List: https://ebird.org/checklist/S68276404