Subject: [Tweeters] Interesting gull at Nisqually Wildlife Refuge on Monday
Date: Feb 22 14:53:59 2011
From: Kevin Purcell - kevinpurcell at pobox.com


I was there with Ed Siegel yesterday (but still haven't written my notes up!).

On Feb 21, 2011, at 9:33 PM, Darlene Sybert wrote:

> And thanks to all who wrote to tell me that the birds I saw couldn't
> have been terns because it's the wrong time of year. However, I stand
> by my identification because it was a Refuge Volunteer present at the
> estuary today who overheard us trying to figure out what kind of
> "gulls" these were and interrupted to tell us they were terns. And
> when we looked them up in the field guide later, I must say they looked
> more like terns and fit the description better than the pictures or
> descriptions of any of the gulls. Guess these few birds just did not
> know they were not supposed to show up until Spring--oh, and by the way,
> in spite of the weather, it almost is, you know. Spring, I mean.

Those "terns", I'm sure, were Ring-billed Gulls (adult and subadult) and a few Mew Gulls with the odd big Glaucous-winged Gull (I didn't see any hybrids) mixed in. At least all the ones I looked at were.

In terms of behavior (in the McAlister Creek) they did behave a bit like terns: gliding down to the water surface and peking at something then soaring back up.

One of the medium-sized gulls had an interesting look. He had a very "clean", white look (adult-like) with light gray back. No brown. A clean black pattern with plenty of black on the wing tips and a underwing pattern of black at the leading edge that gave him "landing lights" (between two patches of black). A black band on the underwing secondaries. Along with a narrow black band on the tail seperated from the end of the tail by white. The bill had a black tip.

There were "other" Ring-billed first years looking much dingier and brown for comparison.

I talked with another birder there (Graham Hutchinson, if I remember correctly) and we studied the same bird both independently with our scopes and together (through his very nice Kowa!). After getting briefly excited at the "mystery bird" (a Black-tailed Gull, perhaps) we both agreed it was an interesting looking sub-adult Ring-billed Gull, perhaps a first year (for the barring and tail band) but very white.
--
Kevin Purcell (Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA)
kevinpurcell at pobox.com
http://kevinpurcell.posterous.com
http://twitter.com/kevinpurcell