Tweeters,

In view of the great interest in the (Kumlien's) Iceland Gull at
Tacoma, I thought you might be interested in the attached report of a
first-year Iceland (presumably Kumlien's) Gull at Iona Island near
Vancouver on February 3. I don't believe it has been seen there since.
A first-year Kumlien's would certainly be much trickier to
identify than an adult, and I will leave it to you individually to
decide whether the description supports the identification. Although I
have seen adult Kumlien's in the past at Iona, I probably would not be
willing to stick my neck out in claiming a first-year bird unless I
had photos. Let's hope it shows up again.

Wayne Weber
Kamloops and Delta, B.C.
wayne_weber at bc.sympatico.ca



-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Toochin <avocet at telus.net>
To: bcvanbirds at eGroups.com <bcvanbirds at eGroups.com>
Date: Thursday, February 03, 2000 5:24 PM
Subject: [bcvanbirds] ICELAND GULL AT IONA ISLAND!


>Hi All!
>What a day at Iona Island! Nathan Heinze and I were searching for the
>adult Glaucous Gull but were rewarded instead with a textbook 1st
>winter
>ICELAND GULL! We had spectacular views of the bird on the ground and
on
>the plant roof! Side by side comparisons with Thayer's Gulls of all
>ages and Glaucous-winged Gulls. The bird is hard to miss considering
it
>is VERY white.
>I will give a quick run down of what it looked like:The eye was dark
in
>color.
>The head shape is very small not thick or fat & round of Thayer's
Gulls.
>The bill was also small, straight with a pale lower mandible base and
>black.
>The bill was tiny in length and straight & narrow. The bird was pure
>white bodied with lightish brown vermiculations on the wings.
>Noticeable in flight and when sitting. These markings were also on
the
>undertail coverts and in the spread open tail in flight. The
Primaries
>open and folded were snow white with no markings at all. The tail was
>also extremely white in color!The breast and belly was also snowy
white
>in color. The legs and feet were a light pink almost a light
bubblegum
>color. Way paler than anything around it.
>All in all a slow day everywhere else but of course Iona came through
>again!
>Well Good Luck and Good Birding All!
>Cheers!
>Rick Toochin
>Vancouver, BC
>avocet at telus.net
>
>
>
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