Subject: Gull pictures (long)
Date: Jan 13 13:48:04 2002
From: Chris Hill - chill at kingfish.coastal.edu


>
> The other two photos were taken during my brief attempt at sorting out adult gull identification
> at Perry Creek mouth, Mud Bay, Thurston County, Washington. I will probably work on
> creating hyperlinks for these photos so that each one can be viewed at a larger size on the
> screen. As it is, I don't think the gull's pale eyes can be seen. I am calling it a Herring
> Gull but I am open to correction, if the photos are good enough to allow independent evaluation.
> I think the bill is too large and heavy for it to be a pale-eyed Thayer's Gull.
>
> Hope to hear from anybody who cares to take a look.

Kelly,

to me, the flat head and long bill sure look like Herring Gull. More than
that, the wingtip pattern looks much more like Herring than Thayers. If
you look at that black-and-white area that corresponds to the tips of the
primaries on the folded wing, the impression I get on your bird is of big
black feathers with small white tips. On all the Thayers I saw in Puget
Sound, that area looked like a row of a checkerboard - black and white
"squares," equal in width. Although Thayers vary regionally, I've
found that pattern a distinctive "checkpoint" when looking at possible
Thayers in WA. In adults only, of course, but this bird looks like a full
adult.

Of course, the white would tend to decrease over time through wear, but
(1) this bird has *really* small spots, and (2) I'd only worry about
dramatic wear if this picture were taken in May or June. Gulls are in
pretty fresh plumage through the winter.

I used to have such a hard time finding Herring Gulls in Puget Sound. I
swear, I think Herring is more *overreported* (on CBCs especially) than
any other gull species. But if you reported this as a Herring, I would
believe it no problem, even if you hadn't seen pale eyes.

Other than the light eye, I'd be more worried about this bird being a
GWG-WG hybrid than a Thayers. However, most hybrids I see that are that
dark in the wingtip are very white on the head in winter (Western
Gull-like). I have a hard time judging mantle color on a sunlit
photograph, so I probably shouldn't even try. Your bird's back appears
pretty dark for a Herring, more like a GWG-HG hybrid, but that could just
be the lighting. I'd expect a hybrid's bill to be more bulbous, less
long, but perhaps I'm overanalyzing that. I can't see if the wingtips are
truly black (like Herring) or dark gray (like most hybrids).

Anyway, I'm no expert, but in my opinon, it's no Thayers, and has several
features that point towards Herring rather than a mongrel.

I'm off to the local dump tomorrow to sort through a few thousand gulls
(mostly ring-billed and herring) for other goodies, so this is a good
mental warmup.

I'd be interested to hear what others think.

Nice photos of the Waxwing, too, by the way.

Chris Hill
Conway, SC (formerly, Everett, WA)
chill at coastal.edu