Greetings,

Yesterday, the gull flock was sitting in the flooded field on the west
side of the Nisqually NWR. From near the top of the southbound entrance
ramp to I-5 you could get a pretty good view of them. I scanned the flock
of unusual birds for about 10 minutes or so without seeing anything that
was noteworthy. Then an eagle flew over scattering the whole lot of them.
When the came back down to rest, a fairly dark backed gull was on the
near side in plain view.

It was about the same size as the GW Gulls. The mantle seemed to be a
shade or two lighter than the wing tips. The head had a good amount of
streaking on it and the eye seemed fairly dark. The bill was very yellow.
It was a little to far away to get a good line on the shape of the bill,
but the head and over all build was slimmer than the GW Gulls which it
sat next to. I also couldn't get a good look at the white-spots on the
primaries. None-the-less, I am sure this was the Slatey-backed that was
first reported back around Christmas.

I spoke with Bill Twiet, about 20 minutes after seeing the bird (Bill
found the bird on the Olympia CBC). He told me that the bird he saw had a
mantle which was a little lighter than the primaries.

At around 12:00 Bill, Tom Schooley and myself, headed down to Ocean
Shores to see the Dickcissel. After about and hours waite in pouring
rain, the Dickcissel put in a short appearance at about 3:05. We watched
it for about 10 minutes before it disappeared again.

The bird has been reported as a female in winter plumage. I belive this
in error. The bird has quite an extinsive black bib, which females would
not have in any plumage. Imm. males would not have any black as well.
Immature birds should be moulting into alternate plumage at around this
time. However, it has very bright rufous lesser wing covers, which are
very subdued on imm. males. Eventhought the bird was fairly close, I
could not get a good look at the shape of the tail feathers, which is
also a good indication at to its age (pointed and narrow tail feathers
on an imm.).

Therfore, I think that it is an adult male in alternate plumage.

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Russell Rogers
4510 Glenn Way SW
Seattle, WA 98116
(206) 935-6280
rrogers at halcyon.com
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