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Date: Wed, 2 Mar 1994 08:20:39 -0800 (PST)
From: Dan Victor <dvictor at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Vega Herring Gulls
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Date: 01 Mar 94 11:55
From:Skip_Russell at beav.intersolv.com

> How dark are Vega Herring Gulls? We have been looking quite hard for them
>here, but are not certain exactly what they look like. Are there marks,
>other than mantle colour, that sets these apart from _smithsonianus_
> Herring Gulls?

Not quite as dark as I expected. There were two adult Herring Gulls
that I was convinced were not smithsonianus. I arrived on the vegae ID
by default, though I would be hard pressed to rule out some of the other
races. It's a good thing Western and Herring don't hybridize! My memory
is fading somewhat, but this is the way I remember the details:

The first bird in early march had traces of winter streaking on the head
and nape, while the second in mid to late march appeared to have
completed moult. From a distance, both could easily be confused with
Western or intergrade WxGW, but had clear yellow irides and the typical
rounded crown and overall shape of Herring. Bird #1 was the darker of
the two, with a mantle about as dark as a California or perhaps a half
shade lighter. It had dark smudging around and behind the eye, a small
auricular spot beneath and behind the eye, and a smallish dark wedge of
diffuse streaking on the nape. Otherwise, the head was relatively white.
The bill was yellower than Slaty-backed, and had a slightly more
pronounced gony angle than the rest of the Herrings present at the time.

Bird #2 was slightly lighter than the first, but still noticably darker
than the other Herring Gulls. It had a very large yellow bill which made
it look almost more like WxGW than Herring. Both birds had bright pink
legs and feet, brighter than smithsonianus, more like Thayer's or
Slaty-backed. Both birds had extensively dark wingtips, with only a
small mirror on primary 10, and an extensively dark tip even on
the sixth primary. The impression was more of a 'dipped-in-ink' wingtip
than of the crescent-shaped wingtip of typical Herring.

Also, Herrings in our area all seem to have pure yellow or sometimes
slightly orange-yellow orbital rings. At close range, they seem to be
able to 'bunch up' the skin of the orbital ring, making it look more
reddish, but close inspection still shows the color to be basically
yellow. The two dark birds in question had distinct reddish-purple
orbital rings, contrasting sharply from the iris. (However, for what
it's worth, I have also seen Herring Gulls in Ohio that had similirly
dark orbital rings.)

As for the best thing to look for when scanning ten thousand gulls for
vegae, my recommendation would be to look first for clear yellow eyes
among the dark mantled gulls. Carefully study the range of variation in
iris color of Western and intergrade gulls. They are often light brown,
appearing quite light at a distance, especially in sunlight, but never
clear pale yellow as in Herring and Slaty-backed. Once you find a
suitable candidate, then study the other characteristics.

> If the Lesser Black-backed was photographed it should not be too difficult
>to identify, would this be the first record for Oregon?
>
>Al Jaramillo
>jaramill at sfu.ca
>Vancouver, B.C.

Embarrasingly, yes, none has been accepted in Oregon. There was one
dark-backed first year gull last winter with a white tail base that was
variously identified as Slaty-backed, Western, California, Kamchatka, and
Lesser Black-backed by various observers at various times. I think it
was all one bird. My personal best guess was Lesser Black-backed, but
the bird seemed to always appear briefly in a feeding frenzy of thousands
of gulls, so there was always some doubt. Who knows? Bob O'Brien took
an excellent photograph of a bird in flight around that time (may have
been the same bird?) that showed a dark line of secondary coverts in
addition to the dark secondaries themselves, and dark inner primaries,
that together may be diagnostic for LBB. Unfortunately I don't believe
the tail was visible in that photo (-- correct me if I'm wrong, Bob).

It was a real letdown not to get those birds back again this year. It
looks like maybe you've got them instead. Good luck!

Skip

--
Skip_Russell at beav.intersolv.com
Aloha, Oregon