Subject: [Tweeters] King County Black-headed Gull, Dumas Bay Centre
Date: Thu Apr 7 18:35:34 PDT 2022
From: PENNY & DAVID KOYAMA - plkoyama at comcast.net

Tweets,
Noting that there hadn't been a positive dBird report on the BH Gull since 4/3, David and I couldn't waste the sunny afternoon, so we headed south to give it a try. We stopped first at Saltwater State Park, where there were scads of Bonys and Short-billed (I really want to say Mew) Gulls. but we couldn't pull out a Black-headed. Our next stop was Dumas Bay Centre, which, unlike Saltwater, crawling with spring-break families, had few visitors. One cannot get to the water from this site, but we could look down from the lawn at a smallish group of gulls (no BHGU) and moved on to the fenced area, where we readied to scope the huge flock, even though David announced "This will be impossible!") Not a gull expert, but a real "Where's Waldo" expert at spotting the "unusual," it only took him a minute to spot the only big, black-headed gull. We made careful study, and noted that it was smaller than the Mews (ouch-Short-billed) Gull, but considerably bigger than the Bonaparte's.!
So it's still around.

Questions for Matt B, Ryan M and Co.--is this one BHGU that flies amongst BOGu flocks, or is/was there a Saltwater St Pk BHGU and a Dumas BHGU? Also, not being familiar with this area, is it the same gull seen at another eBird pindrop at "Dumas Bay Park?" Or maybe this pin drop is just a different, probably beach access, to this large gull flock? From our scope views, it looked like a first summer gull, or is it just in an adult in a molt process? Thanks!
Penny Koyama, Bothell