The Harahan Walmart is traditionally the focal spot for thousands (sometimes tens of thousands) of Laughing Gulls that roost at night on commercial rooftops in the Elmwood area of Jefferson Parish in late summer and early fall. The roost usually forms in July, and disperses in October, after which they take up roosting out on Lake Pontchartrain. Their dispersal may be stimulated by the House of Shock firing up its pyrotechnics nearby as Halloween approaches, although I have never quite been sure what role that plays in the shift to the lake.
This evening, on schedule, there were hundreds- possibly thousands- gathering on the Walmart and Intralox roofs and adjacent parking lot.
In the parking lot photos below (apologies for the dim lighting- it was cloudy and getting toward dusk), you will notice both black-gray-white adults, and brown juveniles. These juveniles are birds that hatched this summer- they only keep this very brown plumage for a short while. The adults are in various stages of transition from their breeding plumage, in which they have black heads, to their white-with-gray-smudge winter head dress. By my count, there were 222 adults and 45 juveniles in this particular group.
It is often possible to pick out birds that are in their second summer because they retain faded remnants of their tail band. These are less common than adults or juveniles, and I did not detect any tonight.
One advantage for birders who are just beginning to tackle the rather daunting challenge of identifying gulls, is that essentially every gull in the New Orleans metro area in summer is a Laughing Gull. No need to sweat over identifications!
Peter
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