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California Gull from Mono Lake Photographed at Bodie California Ghost Town

California Gull from Mono Lake Photographed at Bodie California Ghost Town

If you visit a beach in California and you see a California Gull there's a high probability it was born at Mono Lake. By late spring anywhere from 44,000 to 65,...
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If you visit a beach in California and you see a California Gull there's a high probability it was born at Mono Lake. By late spring anywhere from 44,000 to 65,000 California Gulls arrive to breed on Mono's lesser-known islands. Mono Lake is home to the second largest California Gull rookery in North America (Great Salt Lake is the largest).
A medium-sized gull, the California Gull has the typical 'gull-like' appearance slate-gray back and wings, white head and body, and black wingtips with white spots. The black on the wingtips is more extensive than that of other gulls. The California Gull's eye is dark, and its legs are greenish-yellow. The beak is yellow with red and black marks. Juveniles are, to varying degrees, mottled brown and white, mixed with the adult plumage, with pink legs and beak. It takes four years for California Gulls to mature. This gull is intermediate in size between the smaller Ring-billed Gull and the larger Herring Gull, both of which it resembles.

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