The Howland Picture Pages: Ring-billed Gull

Page by Royce
Last update: $Date: 2004/01/29 01:41:00 $ (UTC)

The Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis) is a Gull found in Alberta in the summer. Sometimes it seems that most of them make their home in Calgary in areas not far from where we live. The Ring-billed Gull is mainly found in the summer months within the Canadian prairies, parts of the U.S. Northwest states, and the Great Lakes areas of the U.S. Northeast. Its range is much broader during the winter when it is found along all of the U.S. west, south and east coasts as well as points farther south.

While most Gulls look essentially alike to Deb & I (all due apologies to those who make a study of Gulls), this one can be identified by the complete black ring at the tip of the yellow bill and its smaller size compared to others such as the Herring Gull.

Resources where you can find out more:

• Ring-billed Gull profile at weaselhead.org
• Ring-billed Gull profile at the USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter

This Ring-billed Gull was sitting in the shallows near the Whitefish picnic area at Bow Valley Provincial Park on July 26, 2003. I normally don't photograph Gulls, but this one was sitting very nicely and my latest equipment was still somewhat new. So I took the shot. Afterwards, I figured I should have dialed back the exposure a bit, perhaps -0.7 EV. This photo was taken with a digiscoping setup. EXIF 2.2 photo info:   320 x 384 true color Exposure time: 1/427.70 F-stop: 4.3 ISO speed: 100 Focal length: 15.1000 (plus Pentax PF-80EDA scope & William Optics DCL-28 eyepiece) Exposure mode: Auto White balance: Auto Exposure bias: 0.0000 Metering mode: Center Weighted Exposure program: Aperture priority Gain control: None Contrast: Normal Saturation: High Sharpness: Hard Camera make: NIKON Camera model: E4500

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