I may have seen Russell's 'black-backed' gull Monday around noon.

I walked down to the waterfront on my lunch hour and saw a large,
dark-mantled gull sitting on the roof of the 2nd building north of the
Coleman Docks (I think it's the one with Ivar's).

I didn't have any binoculars, so I can't say much about the gull, but
the mantle was very dark, much darker than the other nearby gulls,
most of which seemed to be Glaucous-Winged. The head and breast were
pure white. It was about the same size as the GWGUs. Too bad there
were no Westerns around to compare it to, but it seemed darker than a
Western, though I'm not familiar with the southern form. It was not
exactly black, more like charcoal. I've never seen a Black-Backed, so
I don't really know what they look like.

At least it was still there.

Randy Deardorff
curlew at eskimo.com
Seattle, Washington USA