Subject: Siberian herring gulls
Date: Mar 1 10:24:44 1994
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu

The Burke Museum in Seattle has specimens of Siberian herring gulls, both
from Siberia and Alaska. They look like smithsonianus herring gulls but are
distinctly darker on the mantle. I have wondered if some of the "pale"
Slaty-backed could possibly be L. a. vegae, or--not much more
far-fetched--hybrids between vegae and slaty-backed. Vegae is certainly
paler than northern western gulls, so it doesn't seem as if it should be
mistaken for slaty-backed

Siberian herring gulls are quite regular in western Alaska,
certainly more common than slaty-backed, so they are good candidates for
visitors farther south along the Pacific coast. There are no specimens,
however, to my knowledge, nor have I seen any likely photographs. I would
be interested in seeing those from Oregon, as well as the Kumlien's and
possible Lesser black-backed.

Question to Skip Russell--do you feel the gull concentrations near
Portland have anything to do with the early spring smelt run on the
Columbia River? That's what I had thought.

The Tacoma slaty-backed was reported as "very sick" this weekend by
Ruth Sullivan. I have heard nothing more about that.