Hi Tweets,

Wayne Sladek and I relocated a juvenile Franklin's Gull at the log booms in the NE corner of Commencement Bay on Sunday 9/11, at 0830hr. Bruce Labar found the bird on Saturday afternoon.

The juvenile - which isn't pictured in most of the field guides - was with a flock of 80 Bonaparte's Gulls. The morning light was behind us, so the scoping was quite good. Wayne had been down the evening before looking unsuccessfully, but noted that the number of gulls & terns getting ready to roost for the night was much greater. Best feature to search for was the brownish back amongst adult Bonaparte's Gulls.

Also on the log booms were Common Terns, several hundred California Gulls and only one each of GW Gull and Ring-billed Gull. The gull species proportions were intriguing and I was surprised at how long it took me to find a single Glaucous-winged Gull. The majority of the Californian Gulls were adults. There was also a group of 20 BLACK TURNSTONES on the boom.

DESCRIPTION: Slightly larger than the nearby Bonaparte's Gulls with a longer black bill, with a slight downward droop. Legs appeared black unless the sun hit them just right and it appeared to have some red showing through. The overall plumage was brown tending to gray tones, with the back being slightly darker than the wings. Most striking feature was the large white ring around the back half of the dark eye joining with the all white face and neck. The dark gray-brown cowl was only on the back half of the head circling up around the vertical of the eye. (In checking Howell's photographs, the picture showed brown feather going around to the front of the eye. Trailing edge of the wing was edged in white and each of the black primaries ended in a white tip. Rump was white, along with the upper tail. Last quarter of tail was a thick black band, with the outer tail feathers being white.

Good Birding,

Marcus Roening
Tacoma WA
marcus.d.roening at GSK.com
C: 253-988-8313