Subject: Re: Gull ID
Date: Sep 4 10:06:35 1996
From: Maureen Ellis - me2 at u.washington.edu


Jack, Dennis and tweets,

Thank you for your most recent suggestions about the Des Moines Marina
juvenile mystery gulls; these do have a fairly "crisp" dark tail band,
and I'm about to call them ring-bills, rather than CA's. I have a large
natural history library with a number of ornithology books, all differing as to
how to distinquish some juvenile gulls. Even the "Advanced Birding" guide
with side-by-side line drawings of these two species makes a point of
saying that a flying gull may be easier to ID than a sub-adult gull walking
essentially at your feet! And several books indicate a size overlap among
individuals of both ring-bills and California's. It's a wonderful
challenge to learn enough to confidently sort these out. Enough on this
topic; these posts are being printed out and tacked in my field guides!
****Thank you Dennis P. and Jack B. for patiently good information!****

Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington. edu Univ of WA and Des Moines WA