I have a proposal for northwestern birders and ornithologists.

>From my own observations, and those of several esteemed birdwatchers,
throughout the year the most abundant large pink-legged gulls on the
Olympic Peninsula (and elsewhere in western Washington?) are hybrid
Western X Glaucous-winged Gulls. On the recent Sequim-Dungeness
Christmas Count, for example, these hybrids outnumbered pure
Glaucous-winged by at least three to one.

You know these gulls. They are seen throughout Puget Sound, the outer
coast of Washington, and southern B.C. Their mantles (in the adult)
range from pale, Glaucous-winged gray, to medium gray, lighter that pure
Westerns. Yet their wing-tips contain varying amounts of black, unlike
the classic "Glaucous-winged Gull," which has wing-tips shaded gray like
their mantles or slightly darker, but not black. The hybrids' bills are
large, similar in size to Westerns and Glaucous-wingeds. They have gray
heads in winter plumage, like Glaucous-winged. (But many "Westerns" we
see this time of year around Sequim have considerable mottling on their
heads and necks, suggesting intergradation.)

The novice birder is tempted to label them Herring or Thayer's, trying to
fit them to field guide descriptions of mantle and wing-tip color. But
the hybrids have dark eyes, often slightly speckled, which separates them
from Herrings. Their large bills and overall size separate them from all
but possibly the very largest male Thayer's. The black in Thayer's
wing-tips, however, is jet-black, rather than the usually smudgy black in
Western X Glaucous-winged hybrids' wing-tips. First year hybrids appear
to vary through a continuum of shading from light gray to dark
brown-gray, with varying darkness in the wingtips.

Many of us still call these hybrids "Glaucous-winged Gulls," which they
most resemble, as we want to make them fit established species. This is
very clear from western Washington and southern B.C. Christmas count
data, in which some counts don't even mention these hybrids (but we know
they're there!).

I hereby propose (only marginally tongue-in-cheek) that these hybrids
hence forth be known as the OLYMPIC GULL. This name honors the peninsula
where they clearly have become the dominant large gull. I'm not sure
whether the official ornithological world will accept this name, but
around the north Olympic Peninsula, anyway, "Olympic Gull" rolls off the
lips much more easily than "Western X Glaucous-winged Gull hybrid."

I'd love to hear any feedback you may have to this proposal.

Bob Boekelheide
Sequim