Hi,
I studied the photo (which can be accessed through the Media Search function on ebird by entering the date, location and gull sp. as the species). I also checked high counts, bar charts and last reports for both Washington Co. and Maine at large. It seems to me that your identification was rejected simply because there appears to be a gap in Ring-billed reports in Washington Co. for the first half of November; they are shown in the bar chart as being at least fairly common to common in late October, and again in the second half of November.
The bar chart for the whole state of Maine shows early November as being the one period in an entire year when Ringbills are MOST common !! From what I can tell in the photo, these seem likely to be ringbills. The only other feasible possibilities (in terms of date, numbers and general appearance) would be bonapartes, iceland, or franklins. I cannot find any field marks on any of these birds which would seem to confirm any of those species. So, combining likelihood, appearance in the photo, and ebird records for the various species at this time of year in Washington and surrounding counties, I think it is very likely -- perhaps almost certain -- that your flock was ringbills.
Thanks for sharing this info, and for giving us the opportunity to scratch our heads and dig into the records a bit!
James Gibson
(formerly Aroostook Co.)
(formerly Aroostook Co.)
On Mon, Nov 6, 2017 at 11:59 AM, S. Davis <kd7gxf@gmail.com> wrote:
A photo would be helpful, but by the description it sounds spot on for Ring-billed. Sometimes ebird when a number is outside of a threshold tags it for review, but I would be surprised if they dropped it just on a high count.
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