Hello tweeters.

Last evening at Locarno Beach, in Vancouver, B.C., I saw a bird that I
couldn't identify. Please forgive the sketchy description that follows. The
bird was quite a distance away and the sun was down, so it was hard to make
out any distinct features.

The bird was gull like, but smaller than the pink legged huge things or even
the Ring Bills. It was out over the ocean and was flapping steadily as it
made it's way up and down the beach. It's flap rate was faster than the big
guys too. On three occasions, it did a tern like dive towards the water but
aborted on each occasion anywhere from 3 - 5 feet before the water line.
It's posture was also tern like, to me they always look like they're looking
down instead of ahead of them, which they probably are.

It was the markings that really threw me. It had narrower wings than than
the gulls that I usually see and they seemed longer relative to the size of
the bird than most gulls. That may have been an illusion though, due to the
narrowness of the wings. The underpart of the bird was white or light, wings
also white or light with dark tips, at least from below. The head was sooty
or black, like a hood and the tail was white or light with a black or sooty
band across the end. The other details escaped me, but I did get a sense
that there were some grey patches somewhere.

I had two bird books with me and the closest ID was a Bonaparte's Gull in
some transitory plumage. The tail was right for a juvenile, but the head was
definately hooded like an adult. I'm not very well versed in all the various
stages that exist in gull plumages and I wonder if such a stage exists where
a bird would have a grown up head and a youthful tail. I also don't know if
that's a likely bird to be here now. As far as I could make out, they're not
resident here but could be passing through, I suppose.

Any ideas about what I may have seen????

Thanks,

Ingrid Lae