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Two from Washington state, USA (1 Viewer)

gloygum

gloygum

Well-known member
Dear friends,

Could anyone help me with these two that I saw at the Dungeoness spit on the Olympic peninsula, WA, please.

1) Looks to me like a Least sandpiper except that it was somewhat large. Also it was by itself skulking around high up on a beach in amongst driftwood.

2) Gulls do my head in. I think these guys are Western gulls, but please set me straight.

thanks,

gum
 

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Can't make anything but a least sandpiper out of the shorebird.

The gull on the left looks good for western, but the right one seems very pale. May be a trick of the light, but could be glaucous-winged?

cheers,

filip
 
lou salomon said:
least sand + glaucous-winged x western and pure(??) glaucous-winged gull.
Click to expand...

Hello Lou,

The western x GW have always confounded me. How do you seperate these clearly from a pure Western?

Cheers,

filip
 
The gull on the left is an Olympic Gull (GwxWestern). Mantel is too pale for pure western and the wing tips are dark gray, not black as they should be in pure Western. The bird on the right is a pure Glaucous-Winged Gull. Note the wing tips are about the same shade as the mantel which is a little paler than the bird on the right.
 
Gentoo said:
The gull on the left is an Olympic Gull (GwxWestern). Mantel is too pale for pure western and the wing tips are dark gray, not black as they should be in pure Western. The bird on the right is a pure Glaucous-Winged Gull. Note the wing tips are about the same shade as the mantel which is a little paler than the bird on the right.
Click to expand...
if you look in the sibley it says that northern birds (north of central california) are lighter backed than birds farther south.

and the wing tips could easily have been black, what about wear and bleaching?
 
tyrannulet said:
if you look in the sibley it says that northern birds (north of central california) are lighter backed than birds farther south.

and the wing tips could easily have been black, what about wear and bleaching?
Click to expand...
It's still too pale for a northern Western. I posted a pic of a Western Gull from San Francisco a while back. Western will always have black wing tips as well. This bird is closer to Thayer's in appearance superficially. the difference between northern and southern Western's is noticeble but not huge. That bird is not a pure Western.

Here is my Western Gull from San Francisco
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/100261/sort/1/cat/500/page/1

and here is a Western Gull from San Diego
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v...nt=GullWestern2.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch1

Notice also the slightly slimmer build overall. Darker but not too much darker than northern. There is slightly more contrast between the wing tips and mantel.
I've seen Western Gulls my whole life. There wing tips never wear to slate grayish-brown. At most, blackish-brown.
 
Last edited:
With a wing tip like that I agree with the hybrid theory, probably as said GWG x WG.

Difficult to judge mantle tone from single images, but occidentalis has 7.5-9.5 (10) on Kodak Grey Scale, wymani (9) 9.5-10.5 (11) according to 'Gulls'

JanJ
 
JANJ said:
With a wing tip like that I agree with the hybrid theory, probably as said GWG x WG.

Difficult to judge mantle tone from single images, but occidentalis has 7.5-9.5 (10) on Kodak Grey Scale, wymani (9) 9.5-10.5 (11) according to 'Gulls'

JanJ
Click to expand...
I see hundreds of all of these birds every year. I'll go as far to say that it's a first generation hybrid. "Olympic" Gull's when pearched look like overgrown Thayer's Gulls with big heads and bills.
 
People: you are awesome. This is SOOOO difficult. Thanks.

Where else, other than BF, would I get this level of analysis?
 
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