Hi Tweeters:
Congratulations to Charlie Wright who has chased this nemesis bird for many
years! It turns out that many very-good birders in our area have never seen
a Slaty-backed Gull. I found that out last week when we unsuccessfully
sought the gull at Coulon Park, and everyone booed me off the dock which is
north of Ivar's when I admitted that I had seen one before. (But it was
always through a scope at great distance.) I think I was the only one there
who had seen one before.
Is this bird being seen best from the Coulon Park sail-boat basin, which is
at the far north end turn-around in the park?
Yours, Carol Schulz
DesMoines
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charlie Wright" <c.wright7 at comcast.net>
To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 10:13 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Slaty-backed Gull


> Greetings All
> I worked through the gulls between Cedar River estuary and Gene Coulon
> Park this afternoon starting at 3:30, along with Fred Boesche. I puzzled
> over some cooperative gulls at the Cedar River for about an hour. There
> were two Herring Gulls showing a few intriguing Vega-like characters (an
> adult and a first winter).
>
> At 4:45 we decided it was time to check out the log boom side, as the
> gulls gradually streamed in. I started frantically scanning back and forth
> from the corner of the dock. After 45 minutes I was feeling a bit stressed
> as there wasn't much light left, and the bird had not arrived. As a flock
> of 100 gulls came in to the end of the logs at 5:35, I realized this was
> the last chance to get on the bird in suitable light for a positive ID.
> The birds were so densely packed it was tough to see them from that angle.
> But, luck was on my side and I picked out about 3 inches of blackish
> mantle between all the Glaucous-wingeds, which soon revealed itself to be
> the Slaty-backed Gull. We sprinted to the end of the road and got a final,
> closer look at it before the light became unusable. The bird was
> everything I could hope for in a Slaty-backed Gull, very nice!
>
> Cheers
> Charlie Wright
> Bonney Lake, Washington
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