Hi all,

Barry and I went down to the Anacostia in reponse to Paul and Gary's phone calls, and (although no one was around at the time) easily found the possible Common Gull along with a number of Ring-bills, Greater Black-backs and a few Herring Gulls. The bird does stand out from the others. It is quite small and dainty, with a rounded head, soft expression and a short bill which appears thicker at the base and more tapered, rather than longer and parallel-sided like that of the usual Ring-bill. It looks (as Gary noted) all-dark from a distance but actually had a pink base. The plumage markings are very precise and the plumage appears much fresher than many of the other first-winter RBGUs, many of which are starting to look a bit worn, esp. on the greater coverts. The primaries all showed a fine white or whitish edging. The tail band looked quite dark and sharp-edged when perched, but we did not see it in flight. The rump was basically white, relatively unmarked, which would rule out Mew 
Gull. 

All of these points are suggestive of Common Gull BUT...the bird -- like that of most first-winter RBGUs present -- is showing a gray mantle (with some lingering brownish markings). This gray color was definitely no darker than the 1st-winter RBGUs, and in fact a shade paler than that of the adult RBGUs (this was also true of the definite Ring-bill first winters, which also seemed a bit paler -- or more faded -- than the full adults). Common Gull has a distinctly darker mantle color than Ring-billed Gull, and we would expect that to be obvious on first-winter birds. Also, the bill, while short and dainty, may be not quite thin enough for Common Gull. Thus right now we concur with Gary that this may be a late-hatch, very small Ring-billed Gull.

However more details might appear when photographs taken are reviewed. Gary, Paul, Barry and I would also be interested in the views of others who may see the bird. The gulls loaf on this little mud flat until the tide comes in, and then often perch across the river on pilings. Hopefully it will stick around. 

We looked at two other mud flats which had a lot of large gulls perched and could not locate the possible Yellow-legged Gull, but there were many gulls over on the western shore & unviewable from the Park. We did see a single Laughing and a single Bonaparte's on the mud, as well as a probable first-winter Lesser Black-back out on the river,

Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper
Colesville, MD





-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Gary Allport <>
> Dear All
> 
> A very interesting morning a-gulling on the Anacostia this morning.  Greg 
> Butcher and I joined Paul Pisano having heard his first hand description of a 
> biggish gull which sounded very intersting.  We got there in time for me to 
> have 5 seconds looking at the bird perched then a longer in flight view as it 
> left and Greg's views were even less good.  I will leave it to Paul to post 
> details and he has some photos.  Interesting bird.
> 
<snip>