Hi there;

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated so that I can look em' up!

Saw two birds in my yard, quite large, grey and slightly rougher looking feathers on the body, possibly some dark wings but can't remember 100%. They stayed about 1 minute, one landed in my pond and bathed, the other landed a short ways away in the shady grass and watched, as if protecting. At first, I actually thought they were seaguls, they reminded me of them in size, looks and shape, but then the one in the pond turned and I saw a beautiful, rather long, striped tail with black and lighter colors. The tail was also slightly fanned out towards the bottom. I was looking from quite a distance and they didn't stay long, sorry for such a vague description. They flew away when I tried to grab a camera, both had matching tails and colors from what I saw.

I am not a bird watcher normally, however, recently moved into a house with a pond and have become rather interested since the pond attracts many varieties of birds. I live in Kamloops just outside of the city center. Have lived here for 6 years and have never seen this bird. I lived in Vancouver for 20 years growing up and saw my fair share of seagulls, and I know there are a wide variety of seagulls, but I don't think these were?! There is a chance that they were a little smaller than a seagull would be, as I said I was viewing them from a bit of a distance, but again, they were quite large birds compared to any of the normal birds at my pond.

Anyways, would love to know what I saw?! Any help would be awesome!

Thanks in advance!

Kerry

Can you estimate their size? Were they the larger or smaller than a mallard? This is quite the mystery to me, but someone else might know.

_________________
"Japanese scientists from Keio University have found that pigeons have self-cognitive abilities higher than 3-year-old humans. " (link)

The size was very close to a seagull's size... but possibly a bit smaller. Again, I was looking at them from a distance and appologize for a vague description. I wish they had stayed long enough for me to get a better look or take a picture!

I actually can't believe I assumed it was a seagull at first, lol... but really the large size and grey color was what at first glance made me pass it off as just a seagull in my pond... that and I had just never seen any other grey colored birds in the area that are close to that size. It was kind of one of those snap your head around second look moments where I was like "Wait a minute, you're not a seagull!"

The tail was very different. They didn't have seagull feet or legs or anything like that, but it was just a bit bulky in shape and size like a seagull. I was thinking today that perhaps it was a juvenile bird which maybe would mean the full markings and darker colors had not yet grown in yet? If trying to take a stab at what I saw, I guess would suggest to focus on the tail as it was unique to me and it's the most certain thing I remember about the birds... black and had lighter color (grey or white or both) within it, like the lighter color looked striped with the black, longer than a seagull's tail, and feathers were slightly fanned out towards the bottom of the tail.

Somebody at work suggested Whiskey Jack, I don't recall black on the head and also the size is too small after looking into that.

Thanks again! The suspense is killing me!
Kerry

Wild guess, but I immediately thought - clark's nutcracker?
Largish size, grey body, black wings, black and white on the tail etc. etc.

_________________
Kev

The problem is that we have a few relatively small breeds of gulls around here as well as much larger ones-and they're all fairly common--so it's a little hard to gauge how big your mystery bird is. Is it a Clark's nutcracker, like Wetlander suggested?

_________________
"Japanese scientists from Keio University have found that pigeons have self-cognitive abilities higher than 3-year-old humans. " (link)

WOW!

Wetlander - great guess - that is excactly what was in my yard!

As hard as it was to describe it, I knew I would know it as soon as I saw it! Same beak, tail, color... everything! Great work! Certainly the birds that were here, so thank you so much!

After reading up on them, I see that I was probably quite off on the size? Around 12 inches long... big bird though, and very neat to see them! Canaduck you are right, seagulls come in many varieties, it was my best guess and I wish I had been able to give you a better description of the size but I was so iffy on that part - I just knew the mystery birds were quite large.

Thanks again to both of you for your time & help... and once more, great guess Wetlander!

I am very happy now knowing who came to visit me and my pond!