On Sat, 17 Jan 1998, Michael Price wrote:

> Scott, funny you should mention. Yesterday, there were two birds in the
> flocks in South Delta which fit your description perfectly.
>
> While I can't comment on the birds you saw, initially we thought the same
> hybrid possibility, or even an oddly plumaged First-Basic GLGU, but after
> chewing on it for a while with Rick R and Brian B, finally realised we were
> looking at GWGU's in Basic 3 beginning or in their molt into Alt 3. It's the
> combination of cleanly bi-colored bill, pale, worn wing plumage, and white
> head that suggests GLGU or hybrid.
This is a very good description and one that I had considered, not to the
detail of yours, but an abherrant GWGU. After examining what I saw, if you
had a molting second or third year bird, with *very* worn primaries and
the bill color being two toned. The size of the bird and the bill tends to
jive with GWGU and not a GLGU. I'm glad to see that other of these birds
are being seen. I wonder if what is being called a *hybrid* GLGUxGWGU at
Tukwila is in fact the bird I described here. Anybody else that have seen
the *hybrid* care to comment.

> As these gulls move from Basic into obvious pre-Alternate molt about now,
> some of them, particularly second- and third-year birds, are gonna look
> pretty weird.
Must be pretty weird, its not often I stare at a GWGU for about 10 minutes
and wonder what the heck is that. Maybe I should more often ;).

Thanks for the help,

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA