At 02:54 PM 10/5/97 -0700, you wrote:

> It has a green band(s?). Anyone have any idea?

In theory any bird banded here in the US should have an aluminum
USF&W band on it, in addition to any color markers. Though at
the Goshutes raptor project we caught a color-banded peregrine
one year that had no USF&W band. It took the banding lab months
to figure out who the hell put the band on, which is why they
want USF&W bands on all birds (it was a team of BLM biologists
banding nearly-fledged peregrine chicks at Prudhoe Bay, you'd
think they'd want some chance of finding out where their birds
went after fledging!)

Anyway, don't know if Canada has strict rules in that regard. If
not, it would point to the odds being that it was banded by a
Canadian.

You could call the Banding Lab, 1-800-327-BAND, and see if you can
get information on who might be color banding these gulls.


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net