Hello Tweets,

The Great Black-backed Gull was refound this morning at 9:45am from the Cedar River Park in Renton,King Co.,then observed from Gene Coulon Park until 1:45pm,where it flew to the mouth of the Cedar River and observed well by many other birders amongst very good numbers of gulls until we left the location at 3:30pm. The Great Black-backed Gull was first located at a fairly good distance from the Cedar River Park by my mother,who announced the presence of the bird and within 15 minutes we finally decided to drive over to Gene Coulon Park due to not being completely sure of the identity of bird for a closer examination,eventhough my mother was the most persistent and sure of the identity of the bird at the initial time. Upon arriving to the north end of Gene Coulon Park along with Ryan Merrill we almost immediately located the bird resting in somewhat the same location than we observed from Cedar River Park and had no doubt to the identity of bird,where we soon all obtained photographs of the bird resting on the floating logbooms. The bird remained standing on the logbooms for about 15 minutes before returning to the water and swimming further away from shore,but still allowing good looks at the bird,despite dark,cloudy conditions with rain/drizzle at times. We continued watching the bird swimming and preening at times in Lake Washington,as it began to swim further offshore as well as noted flying a few times amongst other gulls by a possible disturbance. We were later joined by a few other birders,who in turn obtained good looks at the bird as we kept on eye on it until 1:45pm when the bird flew alone towards the mouth of the Cedar River,where it was later tracked by other birders at the Cedar River Park. We arrived to the Cedar River Park within 8 minutes and joined the other birders,as they watched the bird resting amongst a very large gull flock at the mouth of the Cedar River,as lighting conditions were very good allowing more photographs to be obtained. It was great sighting,as we watched the Great Black-backed Gull preening and foraging at times along with getting better,more detailed looks at the bird through our spotting scopes. The overall size of the Great Black-backed Gull was not massively larger than other nearby gulls,but noticeably larger in overall body structure compared to several nearby Glaucous-winged Gulls and hybrids and Herring Gulls. The striking contrast from the mantle pattern to white head and underparts was very noticeable,but closer observations revealed the dark iris with noticeable dark smudging around it along with fine streaking on the crown and head with heavier streaking and smudging along the lower neck on either side of the upper breast. The bill was bi-colored,but at closer examination showed a definite thickness near the pale tip.The mantle pattern was the most interesting to us,as it showed a well defined light brown to gray-brown checkered or mottled appearance bordered by black primaries,described by Gene Hunn and Charlie Wright in their previous Tweeters postings. In flight the bird showed a definite banded tail with dusky underwings and a finely streaked whitish rump,but it was at this time the overall bulk and stocky proportions of the bird were bested noted,as the bird flew much slower and heavily than other nearby gulls. The feet and leg color noted on the bird were observed as pale to fleshy pink. It was truly an exceptional species to be found at this location by Gene Hunn and hopefully with enough effort and patience the bird may remain at this general location.

We left the bird to be viewed by the remaining birders at the Cedar River Park,so we assume hopefully the bird would have remained through the evening at the mouth of the Cedar River and due to the kindness of the nearby Renton Airport disturbance was very minimal. Several other people during the day viewed this rare bird,including park personnel and the manager of the Renton Airport,who showed great interest in the bird and decided not to shoot off fireworks to disturb the gull flocks due to seeing the many birders standing and watching in our spotting scopes to end on a good note. Basically the Great Black-backed Gull was seen for the most part all day from both parks and patience paid off for us on our third attempt and everyday the gulls numbers and activity has varied,possibly depending on weather,etc. The area is a great location for gull viewing with no doubt,especially in the winter and the gulls do move around alot,coming and going from possible rooftops,the Cedar Hills landfill and possibly points beyond so with enough birders looking for the Great Black-backed Gull perhaps additional rare gulls with show up. Additional gull species of note we observed included a first-winter Glaucous Gull observed from Gene Coulon Park at 10:45am,then another bird was observed and photographed at the mouth of the Cedar River by other birders just before we arrived back at the mouth of the Cedar River around 1:45pm. In addition good observation and comparisons of large gulls was obtained from both parks,but probably most noteworthy from the mouth of the Cedar River with good numbers of Herring and Thayer's Gulls along with small numbers of Western Gulls noted amongst very large numbers of Glaucous-winged Gulls and various hybrids,as noted in our Tweeters posting yesterday. Additional noteworthy species observed during the day both locations included the following:

1 Eared Grebe
18 Greater White-fronted Geese
45+ Canvasbacks
3 Bald Eagles
1 Red-tailed Hawk
1 adult Peregrine Falcon
1 Least Sandpiper(with 2 Dunlin at the mouth of the Cedar River at 2:45pm)
5 Barn Swallows(with 2 birds first observed over Duck Island at Gene Coulon Park from Cedar River Park,then up to 5 birds observed from Gene Coulon Park)
1 Western Scrub Jay(heard actively calling,then later seen along a brushy hillside next to Gene Coulon Park at 10:30am)


Good gull watching,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net


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