Maureen Ellis wrote:

>There were additional gull species to our almost exclusively
>glaucous-winged semi-domestic residents. Several of the medium-sized
>juvenile gulls had decidedly pink (not fleshy-colored, but PINK)-bills
>with black tips and also PINK legs. These were generally over-all light
>appearing very light silvery-grey mantles/ whitish heads and moderate
>brown scalloping on the body and very long-tipped (extended far beyond tail)
>dark brown to brownish-black wings plus dark eyes.
>
>They were intermediate in size to the accompanying larger glaucous-winged
>gulls. There were also Mew, California and Ring-billed gulls. The Nat.
>Geo. Guide was not as much help as Peterson's Western Guide. He stated
>that there are seven species of gulls with pink bills and pink legs during
>the 2nd year. The bills were larger and not quite as refined as the Mew
>gulls, and the birds were closer in size to the different year-closeby CA
>gulls with grayblue-green legs. Are these pink-billed/pink legged
>ones 2nd-year CA gulls or a hybrid of some kind? Can somebody
>help, please?

Sounds like first-winter Ring-billed Gulls to me, Maureen. The "overall
light" color gives them away.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 206-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 206-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416