I observed the black-tailed gull at North Cove today (10/9), along with Ed and Kay Pullen, Valerie Elliott (her sixth try!) and a few other birders. I watched it from 12:40 until 1:25 p.m., at which time the gull flock flushed. Many of the gulls came right back and landed, but I couldn??t relocate it, and I left about 1:45 to return to the Cranberry Festival in Grayland. (I highly recommend it, the tours of the cranberry bogs were interesting, and the food was great!)

I searched for the gull again from 3 until 3:15, but could not locate it. The lighting by this time was terrible, however, and I suppose could it have been there.

I would like to make a few comments on the ID of this bird. Last weekend when I was down looking for it, there were other birders convinced that they had it. Peering through their scopes, I??d see a subadult glaucous-winged x western gull or California gull. Subadult gulls of many species can have black tail bands; do rely exclusively on this field mark. As a matter of fact, the black tail band isn??t all that easy to see on it when it??s perched.

** This gull is smaller than the numerous California gulls, with a distinctly darker mantle. (The darker mantle color was easy to discern in overcast light, but would be much less obvious in bright light.)
** The legs are bright lemon yellow, like that of ring-billed gulls, and unlike the yellow green legs of the Californias.
** The bill is really slim, with a dark red tip. (California gulls also have red near the tip on their bills, but it??s a spot and not like the dipped-in-red-ink look of the black-tailed??s bill.)
** California gulls have dark eyes, and this gull has pale eyes and a ??cold?? stare look like ring-billed and herring gulls. (Although eye color might not be easy to see at a distance.)
** Finally, the dark streaking on the head has a different appearance from that on the Californias: it forms a distinct smudge, much like Sibley illustrates for first-winter kittiwakes. (There is other streaking as well as this smudge.) This ended up being a good mark to search for when the gulls moved around.

Mike Donahue
Seattle