Dan and Tweeters,

I'm pretty sure you'll need a bit more plumage detail, etc. to conclusively
ID that gull. As for the aberrant orange legs and bill, that seems to be a
very uncommon but regular abnormal coloration of bare parts. P.J. Grant in
his gulls opus notes a few cases of bright orange-red legs and bill, and I
recall Dennis Paulson discussing this phenomenon. I have seen a very few
cases of glaring orange bare parts in adult gulls among many thousands of
gulls over a couple decades, most recently a Western Gull in Delta, B.C.
last winter or the year before.

Gulls: what a way to while away the gray winter days.

Bob Sundstrom

**Note new email address**
ixoreus at scattercreek.com
Tenino, WA

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Logen" <pdl at whidbey.net>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2001 4:32 PM
Subject: Stanwood Sewer Ponds--Need Gull ID help


> My son and I spent a couple cold hours at the Stanwood Sewer Ponds this
> afternoon (hoping to add Tropical Kingbird to our sewer pond list by
spying
> it at Donna's house from the sewer pond dike). As we parked, the first
bird
> we saw was a peregrine sitting on top of the Hamilton Lumber smokestack.
We
> watched it make two unsuccessful hunting attempts, one of them coming
right
> at us from the top of the smokestack and about 15 feet over our heads at
> high speed. Its 3rd attempt was successful, at the south end of the large
> pond. We stood and watched through our scope as it ate the breast and
neck
> of a hen mallard. It was still alive and flapping its wings as it's head
> was neatly removed.
>
> There were a couple hundred gulls sitting around. Mostly Glaucous-winged,
> but a fair number of ring-billed, and a few mew. In addition there was
one
> gull which I did not recognize. We got good looks at it only sitting, and
> it flew just as I was about to photograph it. We could not relocate it.
> Size appeared to be just a tiny bit smaller than the Glaucous-winged
gulls.
> Definitely larger than the ring-bills. It was an adult bird. The
striking
> feature was orange legs and bill. I might go pinkish-orange, but more
> orange than pink. The bill and legs were the same color. Back was dark
> (slaty). There were black and white wing tips. Top of the head and back
of
> the neck were slightly streaked (smudgy). Chest and belly were white.
The
> iris was light. The tip of the upper mandible was yellow, as opposed to
the
> remainder of the bill being orange. There was a reddish spot near the tip
> of the lower mandible only. The bill looked to me to be about the same
size
> as the glaucous-winged bills nearby.
>
> Sibley says that the legs of slaty-backed gull are often bright pink.
> These were more orangish, and the slaty-backed bill in the field guides is
> yellow, not orange. Any ideas?
>
> Dan Logen
> Stanwood