Subject: [Tweeters] Gull identification challenge
Date: Apr 19 09:45:40 2009
From: Quinn - captquinn at yahoo.com


Jack,

Thanks for posting this cool gull. Your call is as good as it is going to get with out involving the DNA lab...this bird is clearly a gull of some type, not a jaeger or skua.

I read the chatter on the forum your link sent us to and I have to say the idea this bird is oiled in some way just doesn't work for me. The bird's feathers on neck and chest are matted a wee bit but for the gull to be that color he would have had to take a bath in a puddle of used oil, bunker C or crude. After which, it would not be able to fly (which the photographer said it was doing). Now, here's where I tell you about me in an attempt to make myself seem credible to you...I work in the oilfields in along the arctic coast of Alaska and I'm on the oil spill response team so I've had to capture, stabilize and ship birds out for rehabilitation. This bird does not have oil on it.

Thanks again,
Quinn
Seattle-Cordova-Dillingham-Prudhoe Bay
captquinn at yahoo




________________________________
From: Jack Stephens <jstephens62 at comcast.net>
To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sunday, April 19, 2009 7:19:40 AM
Subject: [Tweeters] Gull identification challenge


Here is a link to an aberrant gull, photos taken in
the mid-Atlantic states recently. I am thinking it is a melanistic Herring Gull,
other thoughts?

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/763045

Jack Stephens
jstephens62 at comcast.net
Edmonds, WA