Tweets,
I had some free time this afternoon so I went over to Green Lake to look at
the gulls out on the platforms near the Bathhouse. I took my friend along who
is trying to learn gulls. She and I both went to the excellent WOS program
last night and tried putting some of that knowledge to work. I was really
hoping I could have an imm. Thayer's as that has been a plumage that has
occassionally given me some problems. There were many MEW and RING-BILLED
GULLS. 3 HERRING GULLS were present and one adult THAYER'S GULL. Several
Hybrids and a couple of true GW's. There was a gull appearing to be 90%
Western and 10% GW, it had a darker back, pure black primaries but some light
streaking on the head and a lighter eye. It looked very similar to the gull
that raised several questoions in Michael's program last night that was
stated it was within Western variation range. I'm inclined to call this gull
a WESTERN GULL despite it not being a classic western.
Later we went over to Shilshole Marina, the area I covered for the Seattle
CBC on the 1st. I was pleasantly suprised to see 2 BRANDT'S CORMORANT here,
one inside the marina. We only had DOUBLE-CRESTED on the CBC. All said, a
pretty nice afternoon.

Scott Downes
sgd24 at aol.com
Seattle WA

To identify a species should not be enough to quench one's thirst,
a proper thirst must seek to understand every facet of the bird's
existence.