We are withdrawing our sightings of these 2 gulls. Thanks to Brad Waggoner,
we now think that the juvenile Glaucous gull is probably of "mixed"
heritage. We also didn't realize that Herring gulls are extremely rare at
this time of year. Ah, the woes of not knowing the local scene well. A few
people have expressed an interest in details on the Glaucous gull hybrid.
They will appear below. The most important clue, according to Brad, is the
fact that there was no clear line between the pink and black on the beak.
It was mottled. The gull is still very interesting though, and good
practice!
Lois and Mike Schultz

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Lois Schultz" <lschultz9 at gmail.com>
Date: Jul 23, 2012 10:00 AM
Subject: Re: Ediz Hook Gulls
To: "Brad Waggoner" <wagtail at sounddsl.com>

Thanks for the help with what Mike says should all be called Olympic gulls!
The bill lacked a clear line between black and red, so I think hybrid may
indeed be the answer. The bird was very cooperative though and we got super
looks. Textbook comparisons with common ones. Too bad we didn't have room
in the camper library for Gulls of the World. Although it may not describe
the Puget Sound clines either.

On Jul 23, 2012 6:03 AM, "Brad Waggoner"
>
> Would you say the bill was very distinctly, and strongly bi-colored with
border between black and pink clearly defined? There are large numbers of
pale, bleached 1st yr. Glaucous-winged/mixed ancestry gulls that look
superficially like a Glaucous Gull at this time of year. The bill becomes
about the lone remaining field mark that is of any use. Though it would
translate that most of the 1st yr. Glaucous Gulls have bleached and worn to
near complete white.
>
> On 7/22/2012 9:14 PM, Lois Schultz notes to Brad
>>
>> We didn't take notes on the Herring gulls.
>> We did study the glgu for about a half hour. It was mostly sitting on
the rocks at about 20-30 ft. With 10 power bins it filled the field. With
20 power scope part of the bird filled the field. glgu was sitting next to
sub-adult Glaucous-winged gulls, Heerman's gulls, and Ring-billed gulls.
The bill was clearly bigger both in length and gonys angle than the
Glaucous-winged sitting about 4 inches away. Base of the bill was pink with
dark/black at the tip (blotchy). We had good looks at the relationship of
wing length to tail-the wings barely projected over the tail. The eye was
dark with no discernable orbital ring. The legs and feet were pink. The
color of the bird was pale throughout except for some very pale gray on the
scapulars. There was no mottling anywhere on the bird. The head feathers
were so scruffy we wondered if they were still "chick" feathers. This made
the bird easy to spot! The bird flushed twice while we watched. The entire
upper parts were uniformly pale and without mottling, such as would be true
of young Glaucous-winged, Herring or California gulls. The primaries were
uniformly pale throughout.
>> We know that Glaucous gull is not usually in WA during the summer so
were very surprised to see such a young bird. We did compare it to the GWGU
very carefully and it was quite different.
>> We have some experience with GLGU in Alaska.
>> Lois and Mike Schultz
>> Durham, North Carolina
>> lschultz9 at gmail dot com
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