>
> John,
>
> There have been endless debates about the identities of previous Iceland
> Gulls, so if anyone can get really good photographs of this bird it would
> be a boon to us all. There are still some who doubt that the "species"
> even exists.
>
> Gene Hunn.
>

Last year there was an Iceland Gull reported from Vancouver, which was
photographed. It is a mid-sized gull with white wingtips but it is not
an Iceland. Actually, I have no idea what it is, my guesses range from
albino California to odd Glaucous-wing! I imagine that most western Iceland
Gulls are actually albinos of some type. Just from range and probabilities,
""Kumlien's"" gull should be much more common than Iceland here in Tweeterland.
So please, try and get a photo! The status of Iceland gull in the west is
still a mystery.
I put double quotation marks on Kumlien's Gull, because I really don't believe
it exists, not as anything that you could actually define anyway.

Al Jaramillo
jaramill at sfu.ca
Vancouver, B.C.