>Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 21:42:33 -0500 >Reply-To: tjharten@concentric.net >Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding >From: Thomas Harten >Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Jug Bay smithsonianus x graellsii? >To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM > >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. (snip) > >Dave Czaplak ================================== Phil Davis Davidsonville, Maryland USA mailto:PDavis@ix.netcom.com ================================== ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================