Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2001 08:32:43 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Paul Subject: Odd gulls at Brown Station, Tidal Basin Comments: cc: Jim Stasz MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Apologies for the delay in posting this, but last Saturday, 2/3, I led a gull ID field trip for ANS. One of the places we stopped was Brown Station Landfill in PG County. The place was crawling with gulls (thousands), and we had a good time sifting through them. I would estimate they were 75-80% RING-BILLED, with the rest being HERRING, except for a smattering of GREAT BLACK-BACKEDS. Amazingly, we did not find a single LESSER BLACK-BACKED. What we did find was a bird that I am tentatively identifying as a hybrid HERRING x LESSER BLACK-BACKED. I wanted to turn it into a YELLOW-LEGGED, but Rob Hilton was quick to point out that it had too much head and neck streaking for a YELLOW-LEGGED. The bird was of size and structure of a Herring (ie, did not have long wings or attenuated look like on a LBBG). It was an adult, with med gray back (mantle, scapulars, wing coverts, tertials). The gray on the back was about halfway between Herring and LBBG. It had a bright yellow bill, with a large red gonys - again looking more Herring like than LBBG in structure. The legs were also bright yellow. And, as I mentioned earlier, it had a fair amount of light brown streaking on the head and neck. The streaking was fairly crisp, more like that found on a LBBG than the smudginess of a Herring. I tried to get pictures of the bird, but was unable to do so before it took off and was lost amongst all the other gulls. Later in the day we saw a first winter ICELAND GULL at the Tidal Basin, as well as a first winter gull that was suggestive of an angetatus subspecies of Herring. This individual was slight in structure compared to the Herring's around it, and was overall a paler looking bird. If I was to describe a typical (smithsonianus) Herring in 1st winter, I would say it looks like a dark brown bird with light brown markings (edges, barring, etc.). On this individual, I would describe it as a white bird with dark brown markings (hope that distinction makes sense). For example, the undertail coverts were mostly white with dark brown barring, rather than dark brown with light brown barring. The primaries were dark brown, and the bird was too dark to be a Thayers or Iceland. I don't think the bird was so pale simply due to bleaching or wear because the dark brown markings should have been lighter than a fresh Herring, which they were not. Unfortunately I don't have much more to say about it than that, as I was too lazy to take notes. According to Sibley, these features fit for argentatus (or perhaps vagae), but are also within the range of variation of smithsonianus. Anyone else run into Herrings that look so pale? Good birding, Paul Pisano Arlington, VA cheep@erols.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================