Gullin at Barton's Cove 2/27 (Turner's Falls)

I birded the Turner's Falls/Barton Cove, along the Connecticut River, late this afternoon until just after dusk. Last year on this date, I had seen a (THE) Slaty-backed Gull, that James Smith had found in 2009, and I figured...well hoped...the bird might make a return visit to see if I might be there.
I expected more ice, but that might have been washed away by the recent heavy rain.
A tagged Ring-billed Gull #242

...and # 240, I also saw #'s 239, 243, 245 and 246; a total of 6 ( I will follow up with the DCR's cature information once i receive it.)

********comments from the DRC "gull staff"*******
Thanks for getting these sightings to me. You won’t be surprised to learn that all of these gulls were captured at Unity Park, above the falls in Turner’s Falls on 2/5/10. Every time we have tagged gulls there, they never go anywhere. All the sightings we get from them are right back where we caught them. There is a gentleman there that feeds them on a pretty regular basis. I guess they don’t feel the need to go anywhere else.
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The first good bird was an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull with nice bright yellow legs, later I would find another with very dull yellow legs. Two had been reported in the area and these were likely the same birds.

An Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Good numbers of Herring, Ring-billed and Great Black-backed Gulls were in the area, some were on the Barton's Cove side and many others near the Turner's Falls dam. Scanning through the birds near the dam I was able to find a few Iceland Gulls and then a first year Glaucous Gull.

A fuzzy photo of a first year Iceland Gull just left of center.
A "ghostly" first year Glaucous Gull on the water and the same bird (photo'd again below) spent a good deal of time with Great Black-backs on the dam.

The same "Glauc" as above with Black-backs and Herring Gulls.

After spending more time scanning and rescanning the flocks of gulls I found another Glaucous, this time a 2nd year bird, and a few icelands totaling 4 (all 1st yr. birds). I looked carefully for a Slaty-backed and Thayer's but nothing I saw looked even close.

I had one bird I thought might be a Herring X Glaucous Hybrid and I have included a few, very poor, digi-scope shots below. To me this bird was larger and bulkier in the field than these photos show, the bird's wing projection beyond the tail looked a bit short too. Feel free to comment here of via email (alurap@verizon.net).

First year bird just below center, possible "nelson's gull"? (Glauc. X Herring hybrid). After reviewing "Gulls of the Americas, Howell and Dunn, I am inclined to think this is a "just" 2nd cycle Herring Gull.

Same bird another shot.

Nice full moon just after dusk, it "ducked" in and out of the clouds.

The bird list:

Canada Goose.... 84
Mute Swan ....4
Mallard.... 25
Common Goldeneye.... 5
Hooded Merganser.... 3
Common Merganser.... 4
Bald Eagle.... 2
Red-tailed Hawk.... 1
Ring-billed Gull.... 400
Herring Gull (American).... 400
Iceland Gull (Kumlien's).... 4
Lesser Black-backed Gull.... 2
Glaucous Gull.... 2
Great Black-backed Gull.... 275
Rock Pigeon.... 15
Mourning Dove.... 6
Downy Woodpecker.... 1
Blue Jay.... 1
American Crow.... 25
Black-capped Chickadee.... 3
Tufted Titmouse.... 2
White-breasted Nuthatch.... 2
Northern Mockingbird.... 1
European Starling.... 75
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored).... 5
Northern Cardinal.... 2
House Finch.... 3
American Goldfinch.... 1
House Sparrow.... 20