At 08:41 PM 1/13/97 -0000, you wrote:

Tweeters and Bob,

There is a precedent for the naming of hybrids - Lawrence's and Brewster'
Warblers. A name like Olympic Gull is certainly easier that Western Gull x
Glaucous-winged Gull hybrid. When a hybrid becomes this common it should be
named. This sounds like a serious undertaking for the ornithological wing
of WOS.

Denny Granstrand
Yakima, WA


>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
>
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