Lunch Hour at the Dump

RL Rowland called me about wanting to try again for the Rusty Blackbird here at Avimor.  He mentioned that he was going to stop by Hidden Hollow, the correct name and perhaps a euphism for the Ada County Landfill, or in my colloquial venacular, "The Dump".  He and others have recently seen Iceland, Glaucous, Glaucous-winged, and Mew gulls there along with the regulars; Ring-bills, California, and Herring gulls.  I jumped at the chance to see gulls with one of Idaho's gull experts and so I used up my lunch hour at the cold, windy, and smelly dump.  But it was certainly worth it for two life birds, Iceland and Glaucous Gulls!

Iceland Gull seen by us today was in this same phase. Photo source.

Glaucous Gull at about same phase we observed today - photo source

We did make it back up to Avimor, but day two with no sign of the Rusty Blackbird.  Bummer!  There were still a bunch of other really nice birds including this Spotted Towhee of which I was able to get a photo.