George Gerdts and I birded our way out to Pt. Angeles yesterday in rough
weather and managed to find Sundstrom's Slaty-backed Gull on our way home at
about 3 PM. Roger Hoffman was there also checking it out. It was with lots
of Glaucous-winged and "Olympic Gulls" and some Mews in a field along
Schmuck Rd. about 1/2 mile west of the junction with Washington Harbor Rd.,
in the field south of the road opposite the cabbages. It hadn't been there
in the late morning.

It stood out as a couple of shades darker than any Mew of Olympic Gull
nearby and a shade darker than any of the Western's we'd seen earlier that
day, but not really slaty. It was likely a female as it seems notably small
relative to the average Glaucous-winged in the same field. The bill was
rather long and slender also relative to the Glaucous-winged standard, more
like a California. The iris was yellowish-white contrasting with the dark
football-shaped eye-smudge that seems characteristic of winter adults. The
nape was lightly but broadly smudged also, much like the Elwha river mouth
bird of years past though less heavily marked than that one. The primaries
were more strikingly white tipped than Westerns and in flight showed the
narrow necklace of white spots on what were probably primaries 6, 7, and 8.
Pink legs. The other two I've seen in Washington did not appear nearly so
small in the body but were darker mantled, so wide variation seems to be the
norm.

We also found the 1st year Glaucous Gull at the Coast Guard Station on Ediz
hook, on the runway, then later on a roof of a building. A very few well
marked Herring and Thayer's in the same flock. This Glaucous Gull is huge,
clearly larger than the largest Glaucous-wingeds nearby. I wonder if it
could be the nominate race rather than the smaller western race barrovianus.

The Harris' Sparrow was at its usual spot at Blakely Harbor, Bainbridge Is.
There were eight Trumperter Swans near the Slaty-backed field also.

Had close looks at two Pelagic Cormorants sitting side by side at Ediz Hook,
one notably larger than the other. We presumed this was sexual dimorphism,
the male the larger? Suggests caution about calling distant dark cormorants
Brandt's and Pelagic just because one is bigger than the other.

Re. the Aleutian Canada Goose thread. We've had the occasional
white-necklaced, small, dark bellied bird at Seattle but usually mixed with
Cacklings and sometimes with what appear to be intermediates as well. Are
there other features of some reliable combination of features that one could
use to identify an isolated individual?

Gene Hunn.