Gene, sorry about the confusion. The description below was one that I sent
to Mike Denny 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.

To summarize, the information below would appear to discriminate the bird
from Glaucous gull which it superficially most resmbles. The
rump/tail-plumage uniformity would appear to indicate Iceland as opposed to
Thayer's gull. The bill-plumage would appear to favor first-year Iceland
gull. Incidentally, the birds behavior is interesting in comparison to
other gulls in the area and at Lake C. de Alene: Wnen standing or resting it
prefers the ice at the edge of the water. When in the water it incessantly
either bobs its head or flaps its wings.

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