Subject: very pale Thayer's Gull
Date: Apr 17 13:32:11 2000
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


Hi, tweeters.

Yesterday (4/16) afternoon at Green Lake there was a very pale first-winter
Thayer's Gull resting on the diving platform with a bunch of
Glaucous-wings. Much paler, and it might have been considered a
(Kumlien's) Iceland Gull, but I suspect it's just at the pale end of
Thayer's variation. People fed bread to the ducks while we were there, and
it came within a few meters of me. Its wingtips were light brown above and
below, palest at the tip, with faint subapical spots. The plumage was
overall very light, but extensively barred light brown and whitish above
and uniformly dirty light brown below, with paler head. Dark eyes, black
bill, reddish legs. The tail was uniformly very light brown, the tail
coverts very heavily barred. Quite an attractive bird, in seemingly not
very worn plumage. Much smaller and more delicate than the Glaucous-wings.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html