Larus canus & Larus smithsonianus

#33-35 - BlipBigYear 2014

B and I went on an extreme birding adventure today, braving wind and rain and blustery cold to refind the terribly rare sea duck that was recently reported off the redwood coast, a female King Eider (or "Queen Eider," as some have cleverly taken to calling her). A mere three hours of scanning the surf from windblown beach bluffs was all it took to spot that cinnamon brown speck out in the ocean--victory was ours! I had a snowball's chance in Hell of getting a picture of that rarest of specks, so instead I snapped the resident group of gulls at the Redwood Creek mouth. This is always an eclectic bunch, usually yielding upwards of 5 species, if you look hard enough. This photo depicts at least two of them clearly--the teeny tiny Mew Gulls (L. canus) and the larger speckle-headed, yellow-eyed Herring Gulls (L. smithsonianus). A wee Sanderling inhabits the lower left hand corner as well.