** Reply to note from Gene Hunn

>
> Other perhaps off-the-wall possibilities include Slaty-backed (pale eye and
> highly variable mantle color to as pale perhaps as California), Vega Herring
> Gull (from Siberia) which I think would have an iris like our Herring but
> which is somewhat darker, perhaps Mew Gull shade. Both Slaty-backed and Vega
> Herring (or a hybrid between them) would have a less heavy bill than a
> Western or Glaucous-winged X Western. However, both should by now have
> rather heavily streaked heads.

I spent the winter of 1983-84 on the n. Pacific with Slaty-backeds and the other
maritime gulls. I did not notice much variation in mantle color of the SBGU,
all being a fairly dark slate gray; not as dark as a Greater Black-backed, and
almost as dark as a _wymani_ Western. Also, there really isn't all that much
winter head streaking on an ad. SBGU; not as immaculate as a WEGU, but
definitely cleaner than a Glaucous-winged. Irides were mostly honey-yellow in
adults. I saw one _vegae_ Herring Gull and you wouldn't be able to mistake them
with SBGU once familiar with them - a shade lighter mantle than SBGU and not as
truncate in jizz. Yes, the gonydeal swelling is slight on SBGU (much like
Thayer's in this respect) which leads to a slimmer-billed look than any of its
close cousins.

- Jack



Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca