tags: California Gull, Larus californicus, birds, Image of the Day
California Gull and Reflection, Larus californicus, photographed from the Antelope Island causeway on the Great Salt Lake in spring 2005.
This is the bird that allegedly saved the nascent Mormon communites in Utah from a plague of "Mormon crickets" (actually a kind of katydid, I think) in 1848. For that reason it is the state bird of Utah.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [much larger]
Wow, a bird that is over 150 years old!