Tweets,
Need some Gull experts to chime in here! Two places today I had the exact
same type of gull and not sure what to make of it. Here is the
description, the gull was the size of the Glaucous-winged, a little
smaller than the Glaucous gull in Tukwila. The bird I'm describing here is
the Tukwila bird, but saw the same thing while looking for the
Slaty-backed. Its plumage was a very light brown (sort of frosty),
resembling the 1st winter Glaucous closely. The primaries were a bit
darker than the Glaucous gull, but not noticeably(only containing some
frost coloration).
The bill while a distinct two toned,
very pale base and dark tip with a dramatic cut off line, was about the
size of the 1st winter Glaucous-winged Gull, not a bulky as the 1st winter
glaucous gull. The eye was similar to the thayer's not a real pale eye,
but not really dark either, sort of a dark amber color. The really
puzzling thing was that both of these birds had small amounts of grey in
their scapulars, resembling more closely a second winter Glacous-winged
Gull, I have never seen a first winter glaucous gull have this trait. I
have never seen a second winter glaucous gull.
In summation it had some trait of a Glaucous-winged Gull but many more of
a Glaucous Gull; hybrid??? I can find mention that they do hybridize but
no illustrations or description in Grant, or Harrison. Any suggestions or
knowledge of descriptions of hybrids???
Thanks,

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA