Seal Pup and Thayer’s Gull
Back in the Bering Sea on the NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson. We left Kodiak on April 23rd and we’ll finish this cruise in Dutch Harbor on May 3rd. The mission of the cruise is to service oceanographic moorings in the eastern Bering Sea.
Young Spotted Seal Phoca largha, Bering Sea, 28 April 2010.
Thayer’s Gull Larus thayeri and third-cycle Glaucous Gull L. hyperboreus, Bering Sea, 28 April 2010.
While watching seals on a small flow of brash ice about 60 miles north of Unimak Island today I noticed this adult Thayer’s Gull in a group of Glaucous and Glaucous-winged Gulls. Thayer’s Gulls are probably casual in the Bering Sea. This adult is separated from Herring, Vega, and Herring x Glaucous-winged Gull hybrids by outer primary pattern, its smallish bill and rounded head, and relatively long primary projection.
