Steve,
Ruth Sullivan has great photos of this gull, showing
every part up close in every position. She plans to get them
up on a web page soon.
From the photos --and not from the real bird :( --
let me say I think it's a Western Gull. Western (with Gl-W
blood if you want) is clearly the default for the time and place,
so that we must assume it's a Western until proven otherwise.
I don't see anything to rule out Western. The bill shape is
certainly excellent for Western, and a strike against Slaty-
backed. The head smudging, even over the eye, is okay for
Western. The eye color is on the pale end, but is okay for
Western (we see this in Calif a lot). [Could there be overlap
in the eye color of Western and Slaty-backed?!!] The mantle color
seems okay-- and pale for Sl-B. Also, I've never seen a 3rd year
Western with any significant primary pattern like adults-- and
I can't say this for other species. This bird shows no mirrors
or tongue-tips, etc. Finally, Don DesJardin has photos of 2nd
year Westerns that look a lot like this bird. I think you should
get his opinion, as he has expended lots of time and money
photographing Western Gulls (his email is dj at west.net).
Perhaps the bird is a wymani Western (which may be a first for
Washington)!


Steve Hampton

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
hampton at primal.ucdavis.edu
http://www.agecon.ucdavis.edu/homepages/hampton/index.htm

Dept. of Ag. and Resource Economics
UC Davis, Davis, CA 95616 USA