>On Thu, 16 Nov 1995, Eugene Hunn wrote:
>
>> I once saw a pure white Eared Grebe on Mono Lake.
>>
>> Gene Hunn.
>
Joe Morlan responded:
>
>One was reported from there this Fall. Could it be the same bird
>returning?

Several years ago (5+) some friends and I were going through all the gulls
at the Niagara Gorge, looking for some mouthwatering rarity in the many
thousands of gulls. Suddenly one came through with a striking pattern, two
of us zeroed in on it immediately. After the initial excitement, we realized
that what we were looking at was a second winter Great Black-backed Gull
with three white primaries on each wing (if I remember correctly). A neat
looking bird. Well just imagine the excitement that my friend and I felt
when at the same spot the next year we saw a third winter Great Black-back
showing the same pattern of white on the wings! It made us wonder how many
of the regular gulls also come back year after year to the same spot on the
river.

Another quick note on albinos. Several days ago I saw a partial albino
male Red-winged Blackbird showing white on the throat, part of the face and
upperbreast. However, the white was strongly tinted pink. Dennis (remember
him?) had mentioned that this was the norm in albino Red-wings, they usually
show a pink wash to the throat and breast. The implication here is that all
Red-wings have red pigments that are masked by the black of the underparts
which only become visible when these dark pigments are not present. Traits
that are not visibly expressed like these are ones that can really stump
people when they do get expressed through some unusual situation like
hybridization.

Ta ta,

Alvaro Jaramillo
Half Moon Bay, CA

alvaro at quake.net
http://www.quake.net/~alvaro/index.html