Looking at Sibley and reading the note at the bottom of page 52, one might
make a pretty good argument for the Pelagic. They have red at the base of
the bill during breeding (through May), and Sibley notes about Pelagics that
"large individuals occur throughout range". There's only a 1" difference
between them, and the bill size isn't radically different.
______________________________________

Ned McGarry
Sammamish, WA
ned.mcgarry at verizon.net

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Moorhead" <bruceb at olypen.com>
To: "Tom Aversa" <Tom.Aversa at Zoo.org>; "Tweeters"
<tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Cc: "Bob Norton" <norton36 at olypen.com>; "Bob Boekelheide"
<rivercenter at olympus.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 8:04 AM
Subject: 06-14-04 "Red-faced Cormorant" obs. at Ediz Hook most likely
inaccurate


> Thanks, Tom, I too wondered about that (i.e., how often has this bird been
> reported in WA). Therefore, given what I could see of the bird, I'm not
> going to accept it myself as a detailed enough observation to validate it
as
> a Red-faced Cormorant. It was windy and overcast and the light was not
> great, so I'm skeptical now that I may have misread the color at the base
of
> the bill as red. But the bill was definitely too long and thick for a
> Pelagic Cormorant. So, despite being quite close to the bird, I'm going to
> drop it as an observation to try and detail further. Anyone observing
> cormorants out there, however, would be well to look more closely to see
if
> there could in fact be a "Red-faced" Cormorant around now. But at this
> point, with nothing more to go on, I suspect it may have simply been a
> Brandt's Cormorant that I misidentified.
>
> Bruce Moorhead
> Port Angeles, WA
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tom Aversa" <Tom.Aversa at Zoo.org>
> To: "Bruce Moorhead" <bruceb at olypen.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 6:56 AM
> Subject: RE: Red-faced Cormorant obs. at Ediz Hook
>
>
> > Hi Bruce,
> > Thanks for the cc. This bird has only been seen once before in WA. It
is
> extremely rare.
> >
> > If it's not too much trouble, it would be good to write up more detailed
> notes, and send them off to the WA Bird Records Committee (accessible from
> the WOS website).
> >
> > Thanks,
> > tom
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Bruce Moorhead [mailto:bruceb at olypen.com]
> > Sent: Mon 6/14/2004 7:19 PM
> > To: Tweeters; Tom Aversa
> > Cc: Bob Norton; Bob Boekelheide
> > Subject: Red-faced Cormorant obs. at Ediz Hook
> >
> >
> > At 4 p.m. today while walking (near the radio tower) on the outer Ediz
> Hook road along Port Angeles harbor on a windy day, I noticed a largish,
> thicker-billed dark black cormorant about 100 ft from me in the water near
> the shoreline, with a smaller and obviously finer-billed Pelagic Cormorant
> nearby about 30 ft from it. White was also obvious on the flanks and back
of
> the larger bird, which didn't seem like a Brandt's (which are common
here),
> so I put my binocs on it and to my surprise could see red coloring obvious
> around the base of the bill. The white markings were in rather dorsally
> prominent, ragged streaks along the back and flanks; guide book
> illustrations (in Sibley and Harrison) indicate only more delimited
patches
> of white on the flanks, similar to those on Pelagic Cormorants.
> >
> > Didn't one of you Bob's see a Red-faced Cormorant here too recently?
> What's the past history of them being around here; this is the first one
> I've seen one in all my years here.
> >
> > Bruce Moorhead
> > Port Angeles, WA
> >
> >
>
>
>