Subject: [Tweeters] SABINE'S GULL in Grant County
Date: Sep 30 20:01:15 2006
From: ndwendt at netzero.net - ndwendt at netzero.net


While visiting Soda Lake Campground in Columbia NWR this afternoon we noticed a small brown gull with a couple of Ring-billed Gulls down on the Lake. It was feeding while sitting in the water by picking up tidbits off the water. It had no ear patch and seemed much darker than any small gull I had seen on the east side of WA. Finally it flew and that clinched the identification as an immature Sabine's Gull, because we were above it and the black forewing with the dark back formed a strong "W". What a thrill!
Then we went down to the Soda Lake Dam and found at least a dozen Boneparte's Gulls on Migraine Lake below the dam, showing us a nice contrast with the immature Sabine's.
Happy birding,
Norma