In a message dated 97-09-22 05:20:40 EDT, Michael Price writes:

<< [quoting me]
>I rise to disagree that yellow bills mean Yellow-billed Loon . Here on
>the Olympic Peninsula 90% (a guess) of the winter loons with yellow bills
are
>Commons.

Darn those guys at Bushnell, I warned them and *warned* them that those new
doubled gold coatings would cause trouble! Bob, I sure hope that 90% figure
for your guess is a typo, 'cause if most of your Common Loons have yellow
bills, it's time to share the wealth with the rest of us (or see next
paragraph, and further, ID confusion around Yellow-billed Loon). We are, of
course, talking about birds on which you can actually see the bill color,
shape and pattern, not birds too far out to do so.
>>
I point out that I did not say that 90% of Common Loons have yellow
bills. It is a small proportion but still vastly outnumbers the Yellow-billed
Loons (YBLO).
Last year when we had a YBLO at Sequim Bay from January to April we also
had a lot of loons with yellow bills. On one occasion I counted 4 inside the
marina at one time with two of them a living room distance away. To me they
looked yellow and they surely looked yellow to several birders I encountered
over the course of the birds stay who helpfully pointed out COLO's with
yellow bills to me thinking they were YBLO. . It was obvious that this first
chasable YBLO in some years had led a number of birders to put imposters on
their list. I certainly agree that most of the light billed COLO's are more
ivory. I also agee that if an adult banana bill is seen it is unmistakable.
As so often, it is the immatures that cause the confusion. In short I see
quite a number of COLO's with bills I would call yellow and I am convinced
other people call them yellow and even call them YBLO's.
I have no other problems with your detailed post, Michael.
Bob Norton
Joyce, WA