Subject: re KITTIWAKES & SABINE'S GULLS
Date: Jun 8 23:30:58 1997
From: Norton360 at aol.com - Norton360 at aol.com


Tracee said in part in a reply to Jack Bowling's statement that he had only
seen BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES (BLKW) `land under extreme duress (my
abridgement).

>>When I was on a halibut boat a couple summers ago in the Gulf of Alaska
we had Black-legged Kittiwakes roosting on the bow of our boat. I was
able to walk over and pick up one of the birds. I don't know who was
more surprised me or the bird. I agree though they seem to be airborne
most of the time but I have never seen Sabine's Gulls land for more than
a few seconds.

Tracee Geernaert<<
tracee at iphc.washington.edu

My limited experience with with these two species leads me to think they
may behave differently when they come inland rather than being on the open
sea.
On the one or two occasions I saw BLKI in Arizona (AZ) at Painted Rock
Dam Lower Pool they seemed to behave like the Bonnies, sit on the water, fly
around a bit and sit again. The one alternate SABINE'S GULL I saw in AZ which
stayed a number of days outside of Phoenix on the Salt River (actually at
that location a treated effluent braided stream thru the sandy desert old bed
of the upstream diverted Salt River which used to be a permanent river and
the largest of the Colorado's tributaries). This bird was present in July and
was in alternate plumage and appeared to be healthy. It spent most of the
time foraging on foot through the nutrient and biologically teeming river.
In Washington: The immature SABINE'S GULL I saw 9-5-93 at the mouth of
Sequim Bay was on the beach when I first saw it, flew down the beach when I
came close and then took off and flew away when I approached more closely
that it liked.
Bob Boekelheide and I had 6 BLKI's on a sandbar at the mouth of the
Sekiu River amongst about 150 CALIFORNIA GULL's on 11-12-95 and they were
still there the next day when I returned the next day with Paul Conklin.
Again they were sitting like any other loafing gulls and would get up and fly
occasionally (indeed they were hard to see except in flight due to the large
number of CALIFORNIA's). On 12-19-95 Bob Boekeheide and I had an immature
BLKI 12-19-95 on the rocky outfall of a small stream just west of the Senior
Center in Neah Bay (the place! for unusual gulls in Neah Bay). This
individual was foraging on foot like the other gulls. On 4-11-97 I had
another immature perched on a metal breakwater protecting the La Push Harbor
with other gulls and it remained perched for the period of observation.
Bob Norton
Joyce, WA (near Port Angeles)
norton360 at aol.com