Lisa and Tweeters,

In south coastal B.C., Ring-billed Gulls are common but very
localized. They are found all year around major estuaries, especially
that of the Fraser River, where they can be seen in the hundreds. In
other habitats, they are quite rare. For example, Ring-bills are so
rare around Victoria that they are often reported on the local Rare
Bird Alert.

In British Columbia, most salmon farms are in deep-water areas where
Ring-billed Gulls are absent or rare. It is extremely unlikely, in my
view, that Ring-bills are picking up carotenoid pigments from the
vicinity of B.C. salmon farms. They are probably getting it from some
dietary source much farther south.

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net


----- Original Message -----
From: lisa hardy <basalt at earthlink.net>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 11:34 PM
Subject: Re: pink gulls


> I have the April 24 Seattle PI article, and it does not mention
gulls.
> Perhaps there was another article?
>
> Pink Ring-bills have been seen for at least the last 15 years in the
> northwest, and their concentrations are highest east of the
Cascades. Would
> Ring-bills be likely to hang out at coastal fish farms?
>
> Lisa Hardy
> Kingston, ID

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ian Paulsen <ipaulsen at krl.org>
> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Date: Wednesday, April 30, 2003 5:41 AM
> Subject: pink gulls
>
>
> >HI:
> > See below! Has anyone seen pink gulls around here?
> >One of the other Chatters today informed me that the color additive
added
> >to
> >farmed shrimp (such as those in Ecuador), which also is known to
pigment
> >Elegant Terns, is astaxanthin. [see: "Carotenoids produce flush in
the
> >Elegant Tern plumage" (Hudon and Brush, 1990, Condor 92:798-801].
And, a
> >Seattle Post-Intelligencer article recently indicated that
Ringed-bills
> >in
> >the Northwest are turning up pink; canthaxanthin and astaxanthin
are used
> >to color farmed salmon in that area. This extremely interesting
since it
> >implicates food coloring (at least in part) as causing the outbreak
of
> >"pink-gull".
> >
> >P.S. I also learned that >50% of the FrGu's appearing at Bear
River NWR,
> >UT
> >are brightly pink this year too.
> >
> >
> >Ian Paulsen
> >Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
> >ipaulsen at krl.org
> >A.K.A.: "Birdbooker"
> >"Rallidae all the way"
> >
> >
>
>