Hi Tweets - Today, buoyed by Michael Charest's continuing success at seeing the favorite Tacoma celebrity gull, and having failed on countless prior attempts to see it this year, I made one last fruitless foray from Edmonds to Tacoma. Traffic was no problem, despite a rumored, best-forgotten football game, and the weather was remarkably pleasant with more sun than clouds and no rain (or snow). I looked at all of the usual 5,000 +/- gulls perched all over the port area at least 3 times each. While I did double takes for some fairly dark backed Westerns, I could find nothing that approached the essentially-black back of the Slaty-back. An easy bird in 2014 and 2015, this guy eluded my eyes in 2016 and moved ahead of the 0 for 5 Crested Caracara on my dip-trips frustration scale!! Okanogan next week between CBCs for one last try at a couple of other no-shows for the year. May the bird gods smile on us all in the coming year!! - Jon Houghton, Edmonds