My first Laughing Gull

A new bird! I got to photograph a new (for me) bird today! During a quick trip to Lake Hefner today, I found the 1st year Laughing Gull that Terri Underhill and Bret Mayden discovered yesterday. I was very excited to see the bird hanging out in the same area of Stars & Stripes Park as they described. And this young gull was very docile and very comfortable having me pull alongside it and take photos.

Laughing Gulls are described as “rare” for central Oklahoma but Lake Hefner is a great magnet for unusual gulls. Last winter I photographed Lesser Black-backed, Thayer’s, California and a hybrid Thayer’s x Kumlien’s Gull… all unusual birds for this area. So now I get to add Laughing Gull to my Photo Gallery list (I’ll add the actual photo in a day or so)!!! Happiness is finding new birds 🙂

After Hefner, I headed to Lake Overholser, again to follow in Terri and Bret’s tracks from yesterday. And I found the Black and Forster’s Terns in the new park at 23rd & W. Lake Overholser Drive. Fun to see these birds and fun to try to see how close they’d let me get so I could photograph them. Not close enough for my liking, it turns out, but I did get a few good pictures that I’ll be adding to the Gallery also.

And for those who might be keeping up with my mystical Merlin… he was back in the Merlin tree on Monday evening at 8:00 p.m. I think this bird’s going to stay around for a while… he caught a cicada while I was watching him and perhaps the bugs and small birds on Prairie Dog Point will be an ample food supply.

It was raining this morning so I didn’t get to see the little hummer that’s been visiting the feeder. I’ll be out there in the morning though (as long as it’s not raining) to see how he’s doing. Oh, that’s right… I’ve been seeing some white on the tip of the tail which means it’s a female… so I’ll watch her in the morning 🙂

Happy birding,

Pat