Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2000 12:18:32 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Paul O'Brien Subject: Kelp Gull Photos MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I agree with Jane that the photos seem to match Kelp Gull and certainly are not of a Lesser Black-backed of any subspecies. The proportions would be all wrong for LBBG. It has the heavy front end/light rear end and upright posture of a KEGU. The leg color looks brighter yellow than what I have seen, but soft part colors are notoriously variable, even to the extent of changing before your eyes. Besides, some observers noted a greenish cast, which was evident on at least one of the photos, and KEGU legs are often described as yellow. The green tint is probably very dependent on lighti= ng conditions and may even vary from individual to individual (the Galveston bird looked more greenish gray than the Sandgates bird, which had a stronger yellow base). The one feature that disturbed me about the Trinidad bird was the apparent absence of the prominent white mirror on P10 (see the last photo with outstretched wings). I grant that the wingtips were in motion and are blurred, which could obscure the mirror. But it is a large mirror and I suspect it would be noticeable in most photos of outstretched wings. Anybody have any thoughts about this possible inconsistency? Paul O'Brien Rockville, MD pobrien776@aol.com ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================== =========================================================================