Tweeters,

Brad Waggoner and I (George Gerdts) left Bainbridge Is. Thursday (11/9)
afternoon and headed across the pass ahead of the storm system to the Grand
Coulee to search for the Lesser Black-backed Gull seen recently by many observers.
We found the bird at Blue Lake at the south end on Friday morning about
8:00 am. We watched it from various vantage points for almost 2 hours. This
was the fourth long-distance try for this species for me. Obviously way too
much carbon being released for the privilege of seeing this species. I
apologize and promise to plant a few trees to mitigate my carbon output, but it is
nice to have the jinx lifted. We initially saw it from the west side of the
lake from various pull-outs along SR. 17. We never got closer than a 1/4
mile from the bird even when we drove to vantage points on the east side of the
lake. About 9:45, the bird abruptly lifted off the water and flew north. We
were unable to locate again despite substantial effort.
We were a bit surprised at how subtle the difference was in the gray
mantle between it and nearby Ca. Gulls. According to Olsen and Larsson, Ca.
Gulls have a mantle shading of "Kodak Grey Scale of 6 - 7.5" while L.f.graellsii
have "pale slaty-grey upperparts of Kodak Grey Scale of 8 - 10 (11)". So,
a dark Ca. Gull would conceivably be very close to a light graellsii Lesser
Bl-backed, which we can confirm!! The very long primaries, darker yellow
legs, and extensive head streaking were also significantly different from the
nearby Ca. Gulls. We felt fortunate that the gull was in close company with
Herring, Ring-billed, and a number of Ca. Gulls. Seeing the bird by itself
would have made the ID much more difficult. We had a total of seven species of
gulls at Blue and Parks Lakes:
1) Lesser Black-backed Gull (1)
2) Herring Gull (35)
3) Thayer's Gull (10)
4) Ringed-billed Gull (25)
5) Bonaparte's Gull (1) winter adult quite unusual this late
6) Mew Gull (1) 2nd winter bird very unusual we thought at this date
7) California Gull (20)

Other birds of interest:

1) White-winged Scoter (1) adult male on Parks Lake southern end
2) Cackling Goose (1000) not minima, but what subspecies we don't know,
help! Parks Lk.
3) Eurasian Collared-Dove (2) Mansfield at the grain elevators
4) Northern Shrike (6) healthy numbers! widespread from Dry Fall to
Bridgeport
5) Rock Wren (1) calling, seemed like a late date for this species Blue Lake
6) Cedar Waxwing (1) Foster Creek
7) Harris's Sparrow (1) Bridgeport Bar at the "Tree Sparrow" location along
with many White-
crowned Sparrows, but no Tree Sparrows

A final note, Blue Lake has had all the fish killed with Rotenone (sp?) so
there are many dead fish along the shore of the lake. The gulls are feeding
on the fish as are a couple of Bald Eagles. Does anyone know of the breakdown
time for Rotenone and whether or not it is a health issue for wildlife that
consume it second-hand? Obviously it's not very good for fish!!

Good birding,

George Gerdts
Brad Waggoner
Bainbridge Island, WA
_geopandion at aol.com_ (mailto:geopandion at aol.com)