Franklin's Gull Photos

Photography by Terry Sohl

My Favorite: Franklin's Gulls mean "spring" to me, when they show up in their breeding plumage finery, often with that wonderful pink coloring on their underparts. They're usually pretty easy to find from April all the way through November, as they breed in parts of South Dakota, and are a very common migrant in my part of South Dakota (eastern side). My favorite photo is the one below of a breeding plumaged bird from May 2019 at Madison Waterfowl Production Area. Now, birds OFTEN don't cooperate with me when I try to photograph them, but to be openly laughed at and mocked, like this guy is doing? That's another story.... :-)

Franklin's Gull - Leucophaeus pipixcan


Franklin's Gull 1	Franklin's Gull 2	Franklin's Gull 3	Franklin's Gull 4
July 18th, 2004	July 18th, 2004	September 4th, 2004	October 15th, 2006
Below Oahe Dam near Pierre, South Dakota	Below Oahe Dam near Pierre, South Dakota	Lake Thompson, South Dakota	Lake Thompson, South Dakota
Pair of breeding plumaged gulls on gravel road	Pair of breeding plumaged gulls on gravel road	Non-breeding plumaged gull in flight with blue sky as background	Immature, first-winter Franklin's Gull with water reflection

Franklin's Gull 5	Franklin's Gull 6	Franklin's Gull 7	Franklin's Gull 8
May 3rd, 2005	May 3rd, 2005	October 28th, 2007	October 28th, 2007
Lake Thompson, South Dakota	Lake Thompson, South Dakota	Gavin's Point Dam, South Dakota / Nebraska	Gavin's Point Dam, South Dakota / Nebraska
Pair of summer breeding plumaged birds in flight	Breeding plumaged bird in flight with blue sky as background	First-year winter plumaged bird sitting on the shoreline of a lake	First-year winter plumaged bird foraging along a sandy shoreline

Franklin's Gull 9	Franklin's Gull 10	Franklin's Gull 11	Franklin's Gull 12
September 13th, 2009	October 7th, 2014	May 16th, 2019	May 16th, 2019
Lake Thompson, South Dakota	Wall Lake, South Dakota	Madison Waterfowl Production Area, South Dakota	Madison Waterfowl Production Area, South Dakota
Winter-plumaged gull in flight	First-year winter-plumaged bird in flight with blue sky as background	Fresh breeding-plumaged gull laughing it up on a gravel road	Profile of a winter-plumaged Franklin's Gull

Franklin's Gull 13	Franklin's Gull 14	Franklin's Gull 15	Franklin's Gull 16
May 16th, 2019	May 16th, 2019	May 16th, 2019	May 16th, 2019
Madison Waterfowl Production Area, South Dakota	Madison Waterfowl Production Area, South Dakota	Madison Waterfowl Production Area, South Dakota	Madison Waterfowl Production Area, South Dakota
Breeding plumaged gull standing on shoreline	Side view of summer plumaged gull foraging on lake's shoreline	Franklin's Gull in breeding plumage, standing on a gravel road	Franklin's Gull and a buddy Forster's Tern on a gravel road

Franklin's Gull 17	Franklin's Gull 18	Franklin's Gull 19	Franklin's Gull 20
October 7th, 2017	October 7th, 2017	October 7th, 2017	April 28th, 2018
Wall Lake, South Dakota	Wall Lake, South Dakota	Wall Lake, South Dakota	Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Winter-plumaged adult gull on a sandy beach	First-year winter-plumaged bird standing on a sandy beach	Profile of a winter-plumaged adult gull on the shoreline of a lake	Breeding plumaged gull in flight with Lesser Yellowlegs in background

Franklin's Gull 21	Franklin's Gull 22	Franklin's Gull 23
April 13th, 2019	April 15th, 2017	November 9th, 2019
Wall Lake, South Dakota	Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Wall Lake, South Dakota
Breeding-plumaged Franklin's Gull in flight	Flock of breeding-plumaged gulls in flight, showing fresh pink	Gull raising its wings as it's about to take flight from a sandy beach