> 3-23 near the yagh club in Palsbo

> clarks grebe

Are you sure it wan't a Western Grebe, westerns are very common around
Poulsbo this time of year. If its not a Western how did you tell it apart?


> park/ boat lanch off of Marine drive,looking out at dungenous spit

> and what I believe was a SABINES GULL.
> and here I go again with something unusuall
> that I will be highly doubted that I saw one.
> - OK I am not perfect, and unfortunatly, I did not get a picture. my
> first conern was to be able to describe it first - and then it was gone.
> It was one of the smaller gull. a very definate, notacable NOTCH in
> its tail, whic was med to dark grey. was grey and white,. I am not good
> at describing where the grey was and where the white was,and the
> different shades of grey. Wings were marked underneith like the
> peterson.s picture. there was a little mottling that ws different rom
> the picture. I first thought maybe a shear water or tern. I did look
> through the book for body type, coloring and the forked tail. I found
> nothing else that came close.
> One book says we do NOT have them around here. another book shows them
> off shore to wa state.
> Any ideas from the rest of you? Have an of you seen a sabines gull in
> this area?? I am very open to any suggestions of what this gull could
> be..thanks a lot for input

Sabine's do occur of our coast however generally not during this time of
year, they are a migrational pelagic species. Occassionally they can creep
into the inland waters being found from places in Eastern Washington to
western washington areas like Everett, Point no Point, Sequim area.
In late September of 1995 I saw a imm.
Sabine's gull off of the ferry when I was in Elliot bay. By your
description it sounds *possible* but I would need a much better
description including body coloration, markings etc.. One classic marking
for sabine's gull in flight whether its imm. or adult is that the line
between light and dark on the wings forms an "m". By your description of
the tail I would guess an immature bird. If you remember or have details
of the body coloration and patterns written down it would great aid in the
identification.
Hope that helps,

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA