Reply to: RE: Glaucous Gull?? help
Ryan,

I would like to suggest that the bird you saw was a very worn glaucous-winged gull. (Or even a worn western gull or GW x W hybrid.)
Since they spend so much time sitting on sandy beaches, gulls are very prone to bleaching and wearing of their plumage, due to a combination of solar radiation and being sandblasted; their plumage is literally abraded away by being bombarded with sand particles. I have photographs of glaucous-winged and western gulls from the early spring at Ocean Shores with very worn [=white] primaries and with the shafts the only remaining part of the tertial feathers. Mid March is when I start noticing that the glaucous-winged gulls around Seattle are starting to look "glaucous-y."

First and second winter glaucous gulls always have a bicolored bill. [BTW, ageing them by plumage can be difficult due to the wide variation in plumages of the two age classes, but second year birds generally have a pale eye.]
The other possiblitiy would be a glaucous x glaucous-winged gull. These hybrids look a lot like glaucous gulls but can have an all dark bill.

I'm looking forward to seeing the photos!

Mike Donahue
Seattle


Ryan T Shaw wrote:
>Hi Tweets,
>Went to Ocean shores today to get a little bit of birding in, really nice
>and enjoyable day along the coast, anyways, my girlfriend and I were on
>the beach feeding bread to a group of gulls. (She was throwing the bread
>up, I was taking photos of them in flight :-) After a while of this, I
>took another look at the group of gulls and found what I thought was a
>Glaucous Gull. It was either a 1st or 2nd winter bird (I don't have much
>experience with Glaucous Gulls, I've only seen 2 prior) Its primaries
>were all translucent white, and its neck and belly were a washed brown. >It looked just like the Glaucous Gulls I had seen before EXCEPT it lacked
>a bi-color bill. Its bill was nearly all black, with a bit more blackish
>on the tip, and the bill didn't look as heavy as ones I have seen prior. >
>
>I did take almost a roll of film of the bird (good thing I had my camera
>with me) and got some real close full-frame shots at almost every angle.
>I dropped the film off after I returned from ocean shores. I will have
>them scanned on tuesday though, have to work and go to class after work
>tommorrow (monday) so won't have time to scan them. If anyone wants to
>take a look at them once done, I'll be happy to send you the JPEG from my
>AOL account Lftpitcher at aol.com. >BTW, this bird was seen about 1/4 mile south of the beach entrance where
>all the restaurants and motels are in ocean shores. The bird did not
>hang around long, it ended up flying further south down the beach while
>we were still feeding the gulls.
>Thats it.
>
>Ryan Shaw
>Lacey, WA
>rtshaw at juno.com
>lftpitcher at aol.com
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