i went to the ballard locks yesterday to look at the migrating
chinook salmon but, since there was only one chinook and three
sockeye in the fish ladder, i began bird watching (as usual).
i noticed that the normal early summer compliment of glaucous-
winged gulls was supplimented by ring-billed gulls, california
gulls and even some western gulls. all of the birds were very
cooperative and allowed me to approach within feet so i could
get a close look at them. then i noticed a tiny gull sitting
on the steel cable that stretches across the spillway. it was
a young bonaparte's gull. as i was studying it, another one
flew up, but this bird, instead of having an almost all-white
head with grey-brown ear patches, it had a grey-black head
with a white spot on its forehead that ended between its eyes.
i then saw an adult bonaparte's gull fly over and decided to
find where these birds were going. i found them sitting on the
dock just above the fish ladder. most of them were preening
or bathing, and all of them were calling in their hoarse little
louis armstrong voices, making quite a racket. i counted 45
bonaparte's gulls in all, with one young bird and three birds
that appeared to be yearlings.

deborah wisti-peterson
nyneve at u.washington.edu