Greetings all,

The adult Slaty-backed Gull was present this morning at 9:45-10:00AM along
the log booms at Gene Coulon Park. It popped out rather quickly from the
rest of the gulls on the logs and even had a Western Gull (on the darker
side of the WEGU spectrum of Occidentalis) rather close for nice
comparisons. It was as large as the Western Gull but slimmer and noticeably
darker mantled. The bill was thinner in proportion without a large gonydeal
angle, with a red gony spot, head very rounded with light streaking of a
light brown tone extending to the breast. Legs were pink colored.

Tracey and I wanted to get a closer look so we drove to a better position to
see it from a closer distance, but as we got out, we could not relocate the
bird as the flock was kicked up by a Bald Eagle, and we never saw the bird
again.

Unfortunately I didn't get to see the string of pearls, but everything else
looked great for Slaty-backed. Hopefully more photographs can be obtained,
we were hopefully going to attempt to geta shot or two!

We made our way back to the Cedar River mouth to view a good number of
lounging gulls. No Great Black-backed present, but still a nice assortment
of species and interesting plumages. 1 Immature Glaucous Gull was present
at the time among the numerous Herring, Thayer's, Glaucous-winged, Mew,
Ring-billed, and a couple of Californias.

Also of interest, a Bald Eagle spooked the 18 Greater White-fronted Geese,
and a lone Snow Goose.

Cheers

Ryan Shaw
Tacoma

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