Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 15:45:58 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Paul O'Brien Subject: Maryland Kelp Gull Review MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Maryland Birders, The Maryland/DC Records Committee has now gathered a good deal of background material bearing on the specific identification and possible origin of the famous Sandgates, MD (Sea Breeze Restaurant) Kelp Gull. We consider that the status of this bird can now be reviewed with significantly increased understanding and insight. The delay of our review was brought about by our attempts to get a DNA analysis to provide information as to the possible hybrid parentage of the MD bird, and to gather as much information as we could find on this species. Mark Hoffman and Jane Kostenko were able to retrieve a few feathers that dropped from the preening gull and these were sent out for DNA analyses. Unfortunately, for a variety of technical reasons the resulting DNA pattern could not be compared with known patterns from Kelp Gulls. In addition, it seems that further attempts at DNA analysis at this time would be unlikely to give a definitive answer as to the parentage of the MD KEGU because, for some regions of DNA in large white-headed gulls individual variation within species is as great as interspecific variation, and, for other regions, appropriate studies of Kelp Gulls have not yet been made. However, we have obtained expert opinions to the effect that structure, plumage and soft parts coloration are at this time more reliable indicators of hybrid status. Furthermore, at least one expert sees no indication that the MD KEGU is anything other than a full KEGU, based on the photo in Birding World, Vol. 14, page 113, 2001. The other knotty issue is, of course, origin. Thanks to the efforts of our former chair, Harvey Mudd, we have come into possession of a preprint of a paper (due out this month) by Frederic Jiguet in which he outlines biometric and plumage differences among five discrete populations of KEGUs from South America, Antarctica, Africa, Madagascar and the South Indian Ocean. Using Jiguet's criteria, our analyses of photographs of the MD KEGU suggest that it is not derived from any of the populations other than the South American. Dr. Jiguet has been kind enough to confirm that, in his opinion, this conclusion is correct. The history we have been able to learn of the known collections of KEGUs in this country suggests these birds are all derived from eggs imported from Antarctica by Sea World (information supplied by Donna Dittmann, LSUMNS). The Antarctic forms of Kelp Gull can be reliably distinguished from the South American forms on the basis of the biometric and plumage differences described by Jiguet. Therefore, it would appear there are indications that the MD KEGU may not be an escapee from the Sea World collections. That is where the matter stands at this time. We will be sending the documentation out for review shortly and will inform the birding community of the outcome as soon as it is available. Paul J. O'Brien, Chair MD/DC Records Committee Rockville, Mont. Co., 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================