Subject: [Tweeters] Black-tailed Gull and Lapland Longspur - Browns Point
Date: Oct 13 22:55:02 2009
From: Shep Thorp - tanwaxlake at comcast.net


Hi Tweeters,

Jeff Cohen called me this afternoon to let me know that Charlie Wright had
spotted a Black-tailed Gull along the Northeast shore of Commencement Bay,
just south of the Tyee Marina. I drove south on route 509 from Browns
Point, ?Marine View Drive,? and the second turn out between Tyee Marina and
Ole and Charles Marina were four birders working the gulls on the log
booms/rafts off shore. There I met Charlie, Guy, Randy, Mike, Anne Marie,
Dick, Jeff, Dave and several other enthusiastic birders (my apologies for
not remembering everyone?s name). Charlie found the Black-tailed Gull again
in a mixed flock of California Gulls, Mew Gulls and Bonaparte Gulls. We
also saw Black Turnstone, Glaucous-winged Gulls, Olympic Gulls, Western
Gulls, Thayer?s Gull, 3 varieties of Cormorants, Least Sandpipers, Horned
Grebes and Common Mergansers. When the group split up, I took Jeff Cohen,
Anne Marie Wood, Dick Carlson, and Dave Richardson out on my 17-foot Dory
motorboat to get a closer look. While puttering around everyone with
exception to poor Dave, got great looks of the Gull. Several times we got
within 20 feet and had great opportunities to appreciate the dark gray back,
sooty smudges around the head, thick black ring on the yellow green beak
proximal to a red mark on the gonys, and bright yellow legs. Three times we
unintentionally flushed the bird, and saw the black tail with the thin
terminal white band. What a sight! Hopefully this beauty will stick around
for a while!

On the way home Jeff, Dave and I bumped into Ruth Sullivan and Hans. The
Lapland Longspur is still in the park! I?m amazed how tame she is, you can
walk almost 5-10 feet within where she is feeding around the picnic benches
and blue trash bin along the southwest side of the point. Thanks everyone
for the terrific day.

Good birding,
Shep Thorp
Browns Point, Tacoma
sthorp at theaec.com <mailto:sthorp at theaec.com>
253-37-3742



Shep Thorp, VMD
Member, LLC
The Animal Emergency Clinic
Puget Sound Veterinary Referral Center, PLLC
Tacoma, WA 98409
253-474-0791 ~ fax 253-474-6057
http://www.theaec.com/ <http://www.theaec.com/>

mailto:sthorp at theaec.com <mailto:sthorp at theaec.com>
mailto:tanwaxlake at comcast.net <mailto:tanwaxlake at comcast.net>
cell #: 253-370-3742