Subject: starfish ID
Date: Jan 3 12:42:34 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


To follow up on my promise of last week, I brought starfish ID books to my
office and tried to identify the starfish in the bill of the "Western" (=
Glaucous-winged x Western) Gull on p. 426 of Terres' Audubon Encyclopedia
of North American Birds.

I failed. I don't think it's either species of _Pisaster_, which gulls
often get, and I can't really match it with any of the species I know to be
common along the North Pacific coast here. The photo was surely taken
somewhere between BC and CA, but there's a fair change in starfish fauna
over that distance. For those people who have this book, by the way, the
Thayer's Gull right above that photo is presumably a third-winter bird,
from its lack of white primary tips and brown markings on the secondaries
(even though its bill, feet, and body plumage indicate adulthood).

An even more wonderful photo on the facing page shows a Ring-billed Gull
with 2 heads and 4 wings.

By the way, this is another of the great books about birds, with both
informative text and wonderful photos, many showing diverse aspects of bird
biology. Buy one if you can.

Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416