[Tweeters] Burlington "Glaucous" Gull

[Kevin Lucas]

Thank you Steve and Ian for not only graciously letting us know the gull
couldn't be correctly identified as a Glaucous Gull, but also giving us
some explanation why. I'd looked at the image of the gull and thought it
didn't look right, but shook my head and accepted the identification and
figured I just had to learn more to have a chance to identify most gulls.
I remain mostly ignorant about gull identification, but I have one less bit
of incorrect information, and have one more helpful description to guide me
with gulls.
Sincerely,
Kevin Lucas
Yakima County, Washington

*Qui tacet consentire videtur*


On Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 9:29 PM Steve Hampton <stevechampton at gmail.com>
wrote:


> Let me add to this. The bird appears to be a large leucistic gull with a

> pale eye. Its mantle is not a typical Glaucous blue-gray, however pale. It

> has some tan tones of other creamy white aberrant plumages. Its body

> proportions, head shape, and bill shape (large and blob-ended with strong

> gonydeal angle in some photos) are similar to the adjacent Olympic Gulls.

> The one interesting thing is the pale eye, which is similar to the palest

> Western Gull eyes. My guess is that it's a leucistic Olympic Gull, possibly

> from the Western end of the spectrum. Another option is that the eye color

> is somehow affected by whatever is going on with the plumage.

>

> Some good pics of this interesting gull are here:

> https://ebird.org/checklist/S128455800

> https://ebird.org/checklist/S128408545

>

>

> On Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 9:02 PM Ian Paulsen <birdbooker at zipcon.net> wrote:

>

>> HI ALL:

>>   I heard back today from gull expert Amar Ayyash (who's currently

>> writing

>> a book on the gulls of North America) that the above gull ISN'T a

>> Glaucous

>> and CAN'T even be identified to species or hybrid type! Sorry folks!

>>

>> sincerely

>> Ian Paulsen

>> Bainbridge Island, WA, USA

>> Visit my BIRDBOOKER REPORT blog here:

>> https://birdbookerreport.blogspot.com/

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>

>

> --

> ​Steve Hampton​

> Port Townsend, WA  (qatáy)

>

>

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