Hello tweeters,

I finally looked at my slides of Heermann's Gulls with white wing patches.
Both are adults, and both were taken in 1976. I've never had the
opportunity to photograph one subsequently.

One from Ilwaco, WA, has the patch placed and sized as I described it
before, but it appears to correspond to the outer greater primary coverts
(I think I said lesser when I described it from memory).

However, another one from Guaymas, Mexico, is very different. It's a poor
slide, with the bird going directly away, but it looks as if the white
patch covers the entire width of the wing from front to back, corresponding
to the inner primaries and primary coverts. The white is also visible,
although much less extensive, from below. To my best recollection, I've
never seen another one with that much white.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html