Newburgh Gulls, 1/23/15

QUICK POST: I went to the Newburgh Waterfront this evening after work to look for gulls. I parked in the old Torches parking lot and just as I got out of the car an adult Bald Eagle flew over. I scanned a large number of gulls floating in the river with my scope because most birds were rather distant. I walked a couple hundred yards south where most of the gulls were located and saw a bird that I believe was a LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. Bruce Nott had arrived with his friend Rob, I walked back to get them to have a look at the bird. Meanwhile, they were looking at a first winter Iceland Gull, which I got a good look at through Bruce’s scope. We made our way back to my scope and relocated my bird. We kept walking south to keep up with the floating gulls. The bird had a slate gray back, gray smudging on the head and was slightly smaller than the Herring Gulls nearby. At one point I had the bird in the same scope view as a Great Black-backed Gull and the size difference was considerable. I am confident that it was a Lesser Black-backed Gull, but I would certainly like to go back for a better look and of course get some photos.