Gene Hunn wrote:

"Re. light-eyes on Thayer's. It depends on what one means by "light"
perhaps. My impression of ("typical"?) Herring Gull adults is that their
irises are almost white, color of white gold perhaps, really glaring,
while the ground color of Thayer's, and the dominant color when the brown
flecking is minimal is more a rich yellow. Do others agree?"

Don't know if I do. I think they overlap. I have a bunch of closeup
photos of Herring Gull heads from the Great Lakes (birds that were
anesthetized to be banded, weighed, and sexed, also photographed) that show
some birds, by the way, with a surprising amount of brown flecking in the
iris. They look pale yellow, not white, as--to me--do the palest Thayer's
eyes.

Any of you who have a copy of _Guide to the Birds of Alaska_, by Robert
Armstrong, should look up the photo of the Thayer's Gull in there. After I
took that picture I had it labelled "Herring Gull" for years based on eye
color, finally realized there was no way it was a Herring (and Thayer's was
much more common at the dump where I photographed it). That's what
convinced me Thayer's could have eyes like Herring, and I've seen same
sufficiently since to keep convincing me.

However, I'm open to having my mind changed, Gene; I'll have to look at
them some more, and maybe other tweeters will furnish first-hand info.

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