Date:         Sun, 23 Jan 2000 08:22:30 EST
Reply-To:     Maryland Birds & Birding <MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
Sender:       Maryland Birds & Birding <MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
From:         Mary Ann Todd <Dma3@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Jug Bay smithsonianus x graellsii?
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Watched the gulls on the flat below the visitor center at Jug Bay Wetlands
on
Sat from 12:00-2:00. Not too many at first, but numbers built up.
About 12:30 I noticed an adult herring type swimming. It had a
distinctly
slightly darker mantle, nearly as dark as California. The bill was very
pale
chalky yellow from base to gony, with a bright yellow tip and large
orange-red spot. My first thought was adult thayeri, since they
sometimes
show that tricolor bill effect, and are slightly darker mantled, but as
it
turned I could see that the structure was to heavy, and the bill
seemingly
too long. It jumped onto the ice flashing its primaries briefly. It was
definitely not thayeri. All outer primaries were extensively black on
inner
webs. P10 had a small mirror surrounded by black, and p9 may have had no
mirror at all. The legs were bright orange-pink, about the same as on a
few
of the Herrings now moving into alternate plumage. As it stood, it was on
the
small end of Herring in size and structure. The head was heavily
streaked.
Streaks perhaps broader, browner, and more concentrated around eye than
on
average the Herring.The gulls flushed after a few minutes, and I did not
see
this bird again. The windy conditions prevented any good video through
the
scope, though I tried.
When I got home it occurred to me that this bird was a good candidate for
a
smithsonianus x graellsii hybrid, with wing pattern near to the latter,
bill
color suggestive of graellsii, and other features intermediate between
the
two.

I did not see Black-headed, but more gulls were coming in as I left.

Dave Czaplak

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