ring billed gull? or is eye too dark?

Weather : mixed! a westerly blew this morning up to 20 knots and it was mostly sunny. Then a south, becoming southeast brought a bit of rain and cloud but the westerly prevailed and it is now 16 knots, 178′ and a beautiful sunset.

Visitors to the reserve: by 10 a.m. 3 ecotourism boats had come by. Must be visitors from the cruise ship which came in yesterday. I think the heavy winds must have discouraged any others.

Work: I continue splitting this old gnarly wood and stacking it in the basement. Cleaned the lower solar panels this a.m. and the house windows.

Energy: I have been here 5 days and because the sun has been out, I have only used the generator for 2 hours. I have been able to heat with wood and the nice thing about that is it heats water too so I have kept the “hot water on demand” off. As well I haven’t needed to use the furnace. One, of the many, privileges of being an ecoguardian is getting familiar with alternative energy sources.

Observations: The male elephant seal pup has been gone for 2 days. The six female continue moulting. None of them went to the water today. The highlight of my day was a purple martin flew in. I was outside and it was a  strong westerly, a flash of orange flew by me as it banked and swerved around me. It circled the grassy area a couple of times then flew off.

After reviewing glaucous-winged gulls, western gulls and California gulls and their distinguishing characteristics I went looking to figure out what is happening on Race Rocks. My conclusion is they are all either glaucous-wing or western or a mix, the “Olympic” gull. The mature gulls ALL have pink legs and no black on their beaks (except the one yesterday, which I thought was a ring billed gull but need to review the photos). So, when do the California gulls get here in numbers? I will keep looking.

This photo I took yesterday and believed it was a ring billed gull may be a California gull with it’s dark eye. Ring billed gulls have yellow eyes.