Greetings All

I've seen photos of the Liberty Lake grackle, and passed them around (via the
internet) to such national experts as Chris Wood and Alvaro Jaramillo.

The consensus is Great-tailed Grackle. The huge bill and overall purple color
certainly point that way. The tail seems a bit short for a GTGR to me, but
the western race is smaller and, apparently, non-dominant/younger males have
shorter tails. A Common Grackle should have a shimmering iridescence on the back
that is hard to describe: greeny, bronzy -- it often looks patchy and is
distinctly set off from the blue-purple head. The only thing that bugs me on this
bird is the bit of green (Brewer's like) iridescence on part of the wing and
tail. I've queried Jaramillo specifically about this and will fwd any comments.
That does raise the specter of a Brewers X GTGR hybrid, but the photos I've
seen of birds presumed to be of this cross, their tails are much more Brewer's
like.

Also, on 5 Jul had my first juv Ring-billed and Cal Gulls of the summer near
Stanwood.

Cheers
Steven Mlodinow
Everett WA
SGMlod at aol.com