Often during the winter, thousands of gulls spend the night on either Spruce Run or Round Valley Reservoirs. While they are too far away for me to see from my house, each morning the gulls stream west to feeding sites in (presumably Easton) Pennsylvania or along the Delaware River.
From my yard, this stream of gulls is usually very distant, and can be seen through the trees. This video was shot with my iPhone6 through my Kowa 883 scope. The hillside on the left is 3.1 miles away to the north. The powerless on the right are 4.5 miles away. The gulls are somewhere in between. Some are closer (thankfully) but many are pretty far.
This is how I see most of the gulls from my yard. Thankfully, a few usually fly over my house each morning as well, though the great bulk of them are these distant dots. Most have to be left unidentified as gull sp. though most are probably Ring-billed Gulls and usually you can pick out a few larger heavier Herring Gulls–especially the darker young birds. Occasionally I can pick out Lesser Black-backed Gulls. And twice so far this year I’ve been able to pick out a monster huge Great Black-backed Gull. My chances of picking out an Iceland Gull at this distance? Probably very small!
Identifying flying gulls is a challenge, especially at a distance where it can be a challenge to separate even the abundant Ring-billed Gulls from the common Herring Gulls. But such is the life of a backyard birder! Each day I scope the gulls out, adding at least these two common gulls to my daily yard list, and hoping for something even more exciting–though always skeptical of what I think I’m able to see at such a great distance!
Google Maps sight line from my yard to the distant hill in the video.
