Hi Tweets,

Bob Norton, writes:

(snip)
> 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
(snip)

If you're absolutely sure of this, Bob, then I can only suggest that you and
the other observers write up a paper on this multiple occurrence of
yellow-billed Common Loons (Gavia immer). This is the first instance of this
unusual pigmentation I've ever heard of in this species, and may be
something new to our knowledge of these birds--if it doesn't turn out to be
someone's study technique to be dyeing these birds' bills yellow to track
them (a yellowish cast could be old, faded picric acid staining). Or maybe
hybridism is possible in a location where the two species actually do come
into contact, and you've discovered a wintering area of previously unknown
YBLOxCOLO hybrids from that hybrid zone. If so, and if the same birds
reappear this year, I'd suggest you get detailed and numerous photographs or
video of them if you possibly can, and as well as adding them as a
supplement and update to your paper, scan them onto the Web. Keep us posted.

>. . 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.

Ain't that the way, though? Hate to think of the many times in overeagerness
I mis-ID'ed COLO before seeing my first YBLO. Well, a combination of things
there. First, there just wasn't the useful ID material then there is now.
Had it been present, jumping the gun would have been eliminated except for
the hardest of the problematical Common Loons.

Secondly, locally, there was so much damn implicit *pressure* within the
community from the leadership on down to find the rarer bird. A birder was
defined by the number of rarities he'd found, the quality of--usually
his--ID skills and the extent of his list(s), nothing else. It was
diamond-clear that much greater glory and acceptance into the inner circle
would fall on the head of the person who located the rarity than one who saw
and understood the difficult context posed by the resident Commons. Since
they were the experts, and this was how they did things, we entry- and
intermediate-level birders thought that was how it was done everywhere, and
we internalised and acted according to the requirements and dynamics of the
Cult of the Rarity rather than a solid understanding of the other 95%,
because that's how the modelling went. At one point, I actually started
hating rare birds because I'd spend so much time looking for them and they
were never bloody *there*. '-) Seriously, though, in spite of it comic
aspects. Now I realise that was a first step in the expression of a healthy
rebellion against an absurdly distorted, hypercompetitive system that had
more to do with establishing a male dominance hierarchy than enjoying birds.

Oh yeah. 'Ivory' in re loon bill-color is usually referred to as 'old
ivory'--that is, a slightly yellowed cream-white. A more accurate term would
be 'pale butter-yellow'. Where the Yellow-billed bill is at its palest, it
is still a warm white, not the steely cold hue of white on a Common's bill.

>I have no other problems with your detailed post, Michael.

That's gratifying, Bob; I'd rather resolve problems than cause them.

Michael Price The Sleep of Reason Gives Birth to Monsters
Vancouver BC Canada -Goya
mprice at mindlink.net