Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 21:42:33 -0500 Reply-To: tjharten@concentric.net Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Thomas Harten Subject: Re: Jug Bay smithsonianus x graellsii? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I believe that I had the bird described by Dave Czaplak today at Schoolhouse Pond. I would add to the description below that the leg color appeared bubble gum" pink to me as I observed the bird standing on the ice. Extensive streaking on head extended down the nape of the neck and also slightly onto the breast. Iris color on the bird was yellow. The bird was definitely on the smaller end in size of herring gulls. Tom Harten Croom -----Original Message----- From: Mary Ann Todd To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM Date: Sunday, January 23, 2000 8:22 AM Subject: [MDOSPREY] Jug Bay smithsonianus x graellsii? >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 > >================================================================= > To unsubscribe send a message to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey >================================================================= > ================================================================= To unsubscribe send a message to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ==========================================================================================================================================