Hi Tweets.

I had an hour to kill in Tacoma yesterday morning (8/24/14) and decided to
try for the Slaty-backed Gull, photographed by Michael Charest last week.

I got to Gog-le-hi-te Wetlands around 10:30AM and walked around for thirty
minutes. The tide was out and I found very little: most of the gulls were
in a small sandbar in the middle of the river north of the wetlands
(Glaucous-winged with one California). I hadn't explored this area much so
I walked along the riverbank to another sandbar where there were additional
gulls (and some Caspian Terns) but no dark mantles.

But I did meet Michael. He said he was going to drive to the 11th Ave
bridge and scope the next sandbar from there. By the time I walked back to
my car and joined him at the bridge, he was taking off to explore a
suspicious looking gull he'd seen on an adjacent building. We drove a few
hundred yards and there it was, right on the edge of the roof.

We had tremendous scope views of this bird, noting the dark mantle, pale
eye, and reddish orbital ring. We watched it preen and even heard it call.
Pretty flippin' sweet.

Here's the location:
https://www.google.com/maps/preview?q=47.260188,-122.421184&hl=en&gl=us

I posted some pics to Twitter:
https://twitter.com/sedgehogg/status/504027379522486272

Red orbital ring: https://twitter.com/sedgehogg/status/504027582484840448

Preening: https://twitter.com/sedgehogg/status/504027766526722048

Thank you Mike!

Adam

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Adam Sedgley
S e a t t l e, WA
sedge.thrasher [at] gmail [dot] com

http://www.flockingsomewhere.com
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