A Day of Small Surprises

Several small surprises awaited us at the Petaluma wetlands a couple weeks ago. Our day started typically, with various sparrows going about their morning feedings.

Then, as we peered through the scope at a Black Phoebe and Say’s Phoebe foraging out in the dry mudflat, a kingbird popped into view. We only had time to note a gray throat, yellow belly, dark tail, and to take a couple blurry photos before the bird got into a brief dust-up with the nearby Black Phoebe and then flew out of sight.
 
The distance and lighting made it difficult to get a read on the bird’s upper breast color (gray like a Western, or yellow like a Tropical Kingbird). We continued on our way, opting to leave this one as “One Of Life’s Mysteries!”
 
But, later back at home, we reviewed our blurry photographs. Surprisingly, the photos suggested yellow on the breast all the way up to the throat, a fairly notched tail without any white edging, and a relatively thick and long bill in profile. We ran it by our regional eBird reviewer and she gave us the thumbs up for a Tropical Kingbird!

Further down the trail, a normally shy Marsh Wren bopped about brazenly in the reeds and perched long enough for a profile pic.

The next little surprise we encountered was a late-singing Say’s Phoebe. Since Say’s Phoebes don’t breed in Sonoma County, we don’t often get to enjoy their song – what a treat!

When we moseyed over to Ellis Creek, some usual suspects greeted us, like these Northern Shovelers.

But, another surprise awaited us from the banks of a pond. Standing with a small group of lounging Mallards was a lone White-faced Ibis – an uncommon but occasional visitor to the county.

We lucked out to capture it vocalizing on the shore, and later when it took to flight.

We’ve finally taken the plunge to furthering our gull study, and had fun working this one out. We observed a large gull with a light gray mantle and matching wingtips, pale eyes, smudging on its head, and a large yellow bill with a red gonydeal spot.
 
Other than the light eye color, the gull appears as a pretty standard Glaucous-winged Gull. GWGUs typically show a dark eye; but, according to Steve Hampton’s fantastic gull identification website, an adult GWGU can have a pale eye on rare occasions.
 
So, our best guess is this is either a GWGU with an uncommonly pale eye, or a Herring x Glaucous-winged Gull hybrid – either way, a small surprise.

The last small surprise of the day came in the form of a wide-eyed duck with human-esque eyes! We peered for a long time in the scope at this cute Gadwall. As best as we could tell, it had odd white crescent feathering above the eye to create this surprised look. If anyone has any insight into this, please share it in the comments below.

To wrap up the day, here’s one last picture of an extra-handsome Gadwall drake!