Hey, just wanted to give a little background to Vicki's note...I check the
Minnesota list serve often, just to see what pops up in my old home state.
A word of caution on the ID: another MN birder reported that the bird's
mantle color has faded considerably since this bird was first reported. If
you backchannel you may be able to see some of the photos that were taken
when the bird was originally photographed.

Here is the birder's account of the fading:

From: jim mattsson <mattjim at earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2003 23:50:04 +0000
Delivered-To: dac at cbs.umn.edu
Delivered-To: mou-net-outgoing at cbs.umn.edu
Delivered-To: mou-net at cbs.umn.edu
Sender: owner-mou-net at cbs.umn.edu

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After seeing Phil Chu's posting regarding the "mystery gull" at
Prescott, I looked for the bird today and easily found it at Point
Douglas Park in Washington County. The bird was present from 3:30pm to
3:50pm at which time it flew off to the west. I have not seen the bird
for about 10 days now and was most interested in the status of its
plumage as it has been showing signs of increased fading ever since I
first found it on Nov. 24th. The gull was about 125 yards from shore
with about 100 Herring Gulls which were all standing on the ice. I
immediately spotted the mystery gull swimming in the water adjacent to
the other gulls. It was mostly harrassing the other gulls by flying
aggressively at them and then landing once again in the water. I was
rather amazed at how faded the gull appeared since I last saw it. Its
tertials as well as greater, median and lesser coverts have become
mostly whitish now and appear much faded compared to when I originally
saw it in November. It's tail, secondary bar and primaries have also
faded considerably and now appear grayish-brown rather than their
original dark brown. The head, neck, breast and belly have likewise
become almost pure white, lacking their original dusky markings. The
bird's plumage is indeed fading at a rapid rate. It will be interesting
to see what it looks like in another week or so. Also, the proximal one
half of the lower mandible is now becoming pale yellow. I had excellent
looks at the outer 3 primaries today and they clearly appeared banded as
in Thayer's Gull and as in Slaty-backed Gull, i.e. the outer web darker
than the inner web. The under wing is essentially unmarked, also as in
Thayer's Gull and Slaty-backed Gull. I still believe it is possible that
this bird may be in 1st basic plumage and showing a succession of
excessive fading that has some appearance of 2nd basic plumage.
Slaty-backed Gull is especially susceptible to excessive fading in 1st
winter and should not be entirely ruled out at this point, in my
opinion. Point Douglas offers a good opportunity for popcorn baiting and
photography. Good photos my be more important now than ever. I hope
someone is successful.
Jim Mattsson
Eagan

That's it.

Jason Paulios
JPaulios at hotmail.com
Olympia, WA



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