[obol] Glaucous Gull "invasion"

[Cindy Ashy]

Not sure why the Glaucous-winged ancestry would explain the lighter iris color.
I don't yet own an authoritative gull reference but checking the Sibley Guide
and others, it seems the the first winter Glaucous-winged Gull has a dark iris
and both the Glaucous x Glaucous-winged and Glaucous x Herring hybrid
illustrations in the Sibley Guide show a dark eye for the first winter.
However, the second winter Glaucous Gull has a light iris and still has a
two-toned beak....which is why I brought all this up in the first
place....thought maybe we might be looking at at least one second winter
Glaucous Gull, maybe two.

Cindy Ashy

--- Lars and Gail Norgren <gnorgren at earthlink.net> wrote:

>       Wayne Hoffman reported the two darkish
> birds a day or two ago, suggesting they were
> of the barrovianus subspecies AND suggesting
> they might have some Glaucous-
> winged ancestry, which would explain the eye
> colour. The Herring Gull complex has a well
> documented history of hybridization where ever
> two species in the complex overlap in breeding
> range. I saw some Western Gulls on the Eugene
> CBC and darned if one of them didn't have dark
> eyes! Why did I have to use a scope? Lars Norgren
> On Jan 13, 2007, at 10:51 PM, Cindy Ashy wrote:
> 
> > This afternoon at the South Jetty, there were 3 Glaucous Gulls. If you  
> > look at
> > page 230 of the Sibley Guide, there are 2 illustrations of juvenile  
> > Glaucous
> > Gulls, one lighter and one a little darker. One of the gulls I saw  
> > resembled
> > more the lighter form and two of them were the darker form. I saw  
> > these gulls
> > several times and up close and in different lighting situations. I am  
> > very sure
> > the lighter one was a glaucous gull....and I'm almost certain the  
> > other two
> > were....BUT one of the darker ones had a light iris so I think it was  
> > a second
> > year Glaucous Gull...and the other darker one had an iris SLIGHTLY  
> > lighter than
> > its pupil when I got a look at it with the light shining right at it  
> > (the
> > lighter one had the darkest iris which was very dark)....I've looked  
> > through my
> > guides carefully at all the gulls with two-toned beaks and also the  
> > ones with
> > light eyes (at any stage) and can't find another one that has all the  
> > same
> > traits and light eyes and a two-toned beak...the tips of the wings  
> > were NOT
> > dark, the beak was extra long, and when I say "darker" I don't mean
> > dark....just darker relative to the other really light Glaucous Gull.  
> > However,
> > if anyone has other ideas, please let me know.
> >
> > Cindy Ashy
> >
> >
> >
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