Heermann’s Gull

Today we took a detour down by the ocean on our way for the weekly grocery shopping. It was just after a rain last night and the winds were whipping. We stopped at the L.A. Harbor breakwater by Cabrillo Beach and saw a number of sea birds including sandpipers, Caspian Terns, pelicans and several varieties of seagulls. The gull in the picture is a Heermann’s Gull, characterized by its black legs and feet and its red bill. Click on the picture to see the 1024×768 version in the image viewer.

From Wikipedia:

The Heermann’s Gull (Larus heermanni) is a gull resident in the United States and Mexico. Of the current population of about 150,000 pairs, 90% nest on the island of Isla Rasa off Baja California in the Gulf of California, with smaller colonies as far north as California and as far south as Nayarit. After breeding, birds commonly disperse to central California, and less commonly north as far as British Columbia and south as far as Guatemala. They are usually found near shores or well out to sea, very rarely inland.