I saw the Walla Walla Lesser Black-backed Gull on Sunday morning. Much of
the time it was in the fog, but when the fog cleared we had good scope looks
for about 20 minutes. Then the bird flew and I had a good view of its
departure.

I did not see anything about this bird that would suggest it to be a 3rd
year gull. Only the dark spot on the bill even hinted at its being anything
other than an adult. I think that a 4th year individual is a reasonable
conclusion, but certainly not a 3rd year.

Stephen Lindsay
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
slindsay at dmi.net


-----Original Message-----
From: RTShaw80 at aol.com <RTShaw80 at aol.com>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 3:38 PM
Subject: Lesser Black-backed Gull, 3rd winter bird?


>Hi Tweets,
>I have one question that has been boggling my mind ever since I observed
the
>LBGU this past Friday. I have heard this bird called a 3rd winter bird,
but
>I am thinking that it is a 4th winter bird with only the bill having a
slight
>blackish spot on the bill, but also showing yellow on the remainder of the
>bill. The mantle to me looked uniform blackish with no trace of brownish
>mottling that to me would indicate a 3rd winter bird. If only I would have
>seen the bird fly so that I could see if there was any streaking on the
tail,
>but it was just sitting when I was observing it over a half hour period of
>time. Although Jim Nester's photos don't show any streaking at all on the
>tail as I would think a 3rd winter bird would have. I do wish now that I
>would have taken a closer look at the bird after the excitement of seeing
>this species in washington wore off.
>But take a look at the 3rd winter Lesser Black-backed Gull on Joe Morlan's
>Rarity page, < http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jmorlan/gallery.htm > which
>shows an all dark bill (Granted the photo was taken in December) but also
the
>bird shows alot more brown mottling on the mantle, which in my opinion the
>bird here in washington lacked.
>I have had experience observing all ages of LBGU's at close range at Cape
>Point North Carolina near Hatteras in late march of last year, even a 3rd
>winter bird, which had the characteristic mottled brown appearance to part
of
>the mantle. And to just clarify mantle, I'm including the scapulars,
Lesser
>coverts, etc...
>I have looked in the book Grant's Gulls, 2nd Edition, page 104 ,and it
states
>that "some, possibly mainly 4th winter birds have blackish of variable
extent
>on the bill"
>I'd like to hear what anyone else thinks about this, since I have yet to
read
>a post or hear a report with any details that indicates this bird is a 3rd
>winter bird.
>Here's the URL to Jim Nesters photos for comparison to the bird on Joe
>Morlan's site. http://homepages.wwc.edu/staff/nestja/BIRDS/birding.htm
>
>Just a thought to ponder...
>Ryan Shaw
>Lacey, WA
>rtshaw80 at aol.com
>