From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Thu Jul 31 09:30:45 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h6VGSLFd017012 for <[[email protected]]>; Thu, 31 Jul 2003 09:28:22 -0700 (PDT) Received: from rtjones.nas.nasa.gov (rtjones.nas.nasa.gov [129.99.19.30]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h6VGRVkK016962 for <[[email protected]]>; Thu, 31 Jul 2003 09:27:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from mrogers@localhost) by rtjones.nas.nasa.gov (SGI-8.9.3p2/8.9.3/NAS 8.9.3-5n) id JAA13512; Thu, 31 Jul 2003 09:27:31 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003 09:27:31 -0700 (PDT) From: "Dr. Michael M. Rogers" <[[email protected]]> Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> To: "Tom Grey" <[[email protected]]> Subject: Re: [SBB] Palo Alto Baylands puzzlers, 7-30 Cc: [[email protected]] X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2+ Precedence: list List-Id: South Bay Birding List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Errors-To: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Tom, I did just have my first juvenile RING-BILLED GULL of the season on Tuesday, but they look nothing like your bird. They are completely in fresh plumage with nice broad white edges to the feathers. The 3rd edition NGS picture isn't bad, although it should be darker brown than this (more the color of the bird in Sibley with the crisp, uniform scaly edges of the NGS bird). Your bird is at least a year old based on the faded brown primaries and the new generation of feathers coming in on the mantle. Based on the light color of gray of those feathers I'd guess this is not a California Gull - indeed the bird looks too big, with a big blocky head and bill for that species. This suggests a Glaucous-winged Gull, perhaps molting into second-winter plumage, although the bill is already pretty pale at the base for this age. A Herring Gull would likely show a lighter eye by this time. The small beady looking eye is also a good mark for GWGU. With birds at the Baylands you must always be careful to consider Western x Glaucous-winged hybrids, which are numerous. It's hard to assess the color of the primaries well when they are this worn (and from a single photo), but I imagine that the color is within range for a worn GWGU; certainly the mantle feathers don't look darker than expected. No argument with your assessment on the LBCU and SEPL. Mike _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. south-bay-birds mailing list ([[email protected]]) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://www.plaidworks.com/mailman/options/south-bay-birds/south-bay-birds-archive%40plaidworks.com This email sent to [[email protected]]