Subject: [Tweeters] Cedar River mouth produces another Slaty-backed Gull
Date: Dec 25 18:32:36 2006
From: Cameron Cox - cameron_cox at hotmail.com


Tweeters,

I arrived at the Cedar River mouth (in Renton, King County) this afternoon
about 2:45 and ran into Curtis and Bobbi Pearson and Dylan Thomas looking
for the Palm Warbler. After Dylan and Bobbi found the warbler, we started
looking through the gulls on the sandbar. Curtis and I were in the midst of
a conversation about Slaty-backed Gulls when Curtis pointed out a
dark-mantled gull to me. I put my scope on it and immediately realized it
was an adult Slaty-backed. We watched the bird preen, spread its wings and
generally show off for about 30 minutes. I took some reasonable digiscoped
shots of the bird and some video that shows the string-of-pearls mark that
Slaty-backs are famous for. I am quite sure that this is not the same bird
that was at this location last winter. This individual is slightly smaller
and paler with fewer markings on the head, but with a more distinct
string-of-pearls. It also has an injured left leg and walks with a
pronounced limp.

Later, I moved to Gene Coulon Park as gull began to gather for the evening.
I had 1500-2000 birds on the logs but the Slaty-backed never showed up. The
trick for birding both of these sites for gulls is to arrive in the
afternoon. When I first arrived at 2:45 there were 100 gulls sitting on the
sandbars at Cedar River. When we first saw the Slaty-backed at 3:10 there
were about 300 birds there. Gulls started arriving at Coulon soon
afterwards. Good luck and Happy Holidays.


Cameron Cox
Nikon Birding Market Specialist
Seattle, WA
Cameron_cox at hotmail.com

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