Subject: Black-tailed Gull at North Cove 8/8/04
Date: Aug 8 18:55:48 2004
From: Ruth Sullivan - godwit at worldnet.att.net


Hello Tweets,

This morning my mother and I observed and photographed the Black-tailed Gull at North Cove this morning between 11:35am-11:50am upon our third attempt and finally were able to enjoy this exceptional bird. This striking gull was first located by Steve Kornfeld of Bend,Oregon until we and Barry Levine and Marvin Cooper arrived at the location at 11:30am. We were all signaled by Steve,as he waved us down so we went running down to where he was standing as he scoped the gull flock. We all knew at this point he had the gull and within a minute we had set up our spotting scopes and obtained views of the bird resting with it's head tucked in,showing us some smudgy areas on the back side of the head. We remained at a safe distance to the gull flock,as we continued watching the Black-tailed Gull,as it rested on the sand surrounded by other gulls and Caspian Terns until another birder joined us. The bird finally pulled it's head out revealing it's long,straight yellow bill with a red tip bordered by a black ring(with the lower mandible showing a red area beyond the black ring,being visible in our photographs)along with the clear pale yellow iris with dark center. This bird was STRIKING and treated us all to great,close views of the bird as it eventually got up and walked towards the shoreline and seemed fairly relaxed and calm. The bird began stretching it's long wings,yellow feet and legs and also yawned,but what was most impressive to us was all the significant details that were visible on this bird including the much darker gray mantle and size as compared to several nearby California Gulls perhaps slightly paler than nearby Heermann's Gulls. The black primaries were solid black with no indication of any white and we personally were unable to ever see the tail since the bird always seem to hide it under it's long wings. The bird clearly showed smudgy areas on the head,which were most apparent on the nape and hindneck and partially around the eye. The structure of the bird was far more slender and daintier than the bulkier California Gulls,as well as being much longer winged in overall appearance. As we continued taking photos the bird worked it's way towards the shoreline and quickly flew off alone to the west showing a dark black band on the tail that was not as broad as we have seen in many references,but it was still very visible bordered by a thin,clear white edging along the tip of the tail. Some of us that continued watching the Black-tailed Gull in flight noted an obvious white trailing edge along the outer wings bordering the dark gray mantle and completely black primaries with the underwings being palest towards the body and duskiest towards the tip of the primaries,which was a noteworthy contrast. As the bird continued west it gained elevation over the ocean and circled several times as some of us watched it in our spotting scopes then it continued in a northerly direction and eventually out of sight to an unknown location at 11:50am. We remained scanning in different directions until 12:15pm,but the Black-tailed Gull never returned as other birders arrived. Several of us continued towards Tokeland and points beyond and my mother and I returned to North Cove at 1pm,but we noticed the gull flocks had greatly diminished and moved to another location,possibly due to increased human activity. We remained for about 15 minutes scanning through the remaining gulls flocks,but the Black-tailed Gulls was not observed so perhaps others will see the bird this evening or in days ahead.


We have placed 2 photographs of the Black-tailed Gull onto our yahoo website,which can be accessed at http://photos.yahoo.com/godwit2003/ , then clicking on the Ruth Sullivan thumbnail to view our photographs.

In addition to the Black-tailed Gull we observed a few other highlights during the day including the following species:

2 Lesser Yellowlegs at the Johns River WRA

17 Willets at the Tokeland Marina

30 Marbled Godwits at Bottle Beach

3 Red-necked Phalaropes at Midway Beach Rd.

The lingering immature Franklin's Gull at Tokeland,which was also observed by several other observers.



Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit at worldnet.att.net