Gene, sorry about the confusion. The description was one that I sent to
Mike that accidentally got copied to Tweeters. The upper wing showed not
very much contrast between mantle and either primaries or rump/tail:
streaked or mottled pale beige in poor light or dirty white in good light,
somewhat more uniform on the primaries. This is what I intended to convey
by "uniform". We have since seen the underwing. The underwing showed
pristine white primaries contrasting with an otherwise dirty white
appearance. Several of us have tried to obtain photos of the bird now and
hope that they turn out well.

John Hirth, Viola, ID <Hirth at mme.wsu.edu
----------
From: tweeters
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: I. G.
Date: Wednesday, January 11, 1995 3:58PM

Merrylynn,

Read your "Iceland Gull" description with interest but I don't see
anything in the description to rule out Thayer's? Were the primaries
essentially white/ivory, distinctly paler than the rest of the wing? I
would expect that if it were a Kumlien's or nominate Iceland Gull that
would be a conspicuous feature.

Gene Hunn.

On Wed, 11 Jan 1995, DENNY, MERRYLYNN wrote:

>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> -
>
> Hi Mike: We made two passes at the river near Lewiston and saw it the
> second time around noon. The gull was hanging around with several
> herring
> gulls and indeed chased one (seeking to rob it?) as we watched. I
> suspect
> it forages in the morning and rests in late morning. It was first seen
> two
> weeks ago by Dan Svingen resting on the large gravel bar across from the
> weigh station on Rte 12 one mile east of Lewiston. It was also seen by
> Carol Van de Voorde and Winnie Hepburn on the ice near the grain
> terminals
> across the river from the big levee pond in Lewiston resting near a very
> large duck population. We saw it on the shore on the Clarkston side of
> the
> Snake just where the Snake joins the Clearwater. The area can be scanned
>
> from the notheast corner of the Costco parking lot and also from an
> access
> road below that runs along the Snake. The latter area might be better
> for a
> photo. The bird was just out of range for our camera and obviously a
> photo
> would be valuable.
>
> We saw the gull flying, standing and sleeping. It is finely
> streaked
> giving it a uniform light beige appearance. It appeared slightly smaller
>
> than the Herring Gulls that were near it, had darkish pink legs, had the
> "gentle" appearance mentioned by Grant with a smoothly rounded head, had
> an
> all dark bill that appeared to blend to a dark green at the base, had a
> relatively short bill (about .45 *the head size), and when standing had
> wing
> tips that clearly extended beyond the tail. The eye appeared dark.
>
> Good luck! John
>
>