Hello, tweeters.

I was just tweeted to a fabulous sight, a FULLY ALBINO YELLOW-BILLED LOON
at the Tacoma waterfront. It was along Ruston Way, near various
restaurants (Shenanigans, Katie Downs, The Ram). It was found by Joe
Terlouw and Zoe and Bill Shumway at midday today (11/16), they stopped by
and told me about it, and I went there and found it easily. It is pure
white with pinkish (perhaps yellowish-tinged) bill, pink feet, and I think
pink (at least lighter red than normal) eyes. It was foraging not far off
the dock at the casino just west of Katie Downs when I saw it, and it had
been near Shenanigans earlier.

I would guess this was the same albino loon that was reported last winter
as a Common Loon; it seems so unlikely that there would be albinos of two
different loon species at the same spot in two successive winters. I never
did see the white loon last winter, although I looked for it a couple of
times. This bird held its bill horizontal most of the time, occasionally
elevating it a bit, but the shape was absolutely typical of adult
Yellow-billed and to me makes the identification certain. I took a student
with me, and when we returned to the museum, she looked at our specimens
and emphatically endorsed the bill shape as that of a Yellow-billed Loon
rather than a Common Loon.

What's the probability of seeing an albino individual of a rare bird? Whew.

This is the same waterfront that has hosted what appears to be a hybrid
Bufflehead x Common Goldeneye for several winters, not to mention
Slaty-backed and Iceland Gulls. Let's hear it for Tacoma! Or is it
something in the water? Commencement Bay is a Superfund site, perhaps with
great mutation potential.

Dennis

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