[obol] Coos Gull 4/19/2008

[Alan Contreras]

I'm not sure a wymani would be that much smaller.  The ones I have seen were
not small.  I look forward to seeing photos.

There are a couple of photos of the one I saw last fall on my contrerasbirds
blog site below.

-- 
Alan Contreras
EUGENE, OREGON
acontrer at mindspring.com
www.OREGONREVIEW.BLOGSPOT.COM ­ Commentary
www.CONTRERASBIRDS.BLOGSPOT.COM ­ Current Bird Photos


"Every time I hear a political speech or I read those of our leaders, I am
horrified at having, for years, heard nothing which sounded human.  It is
always the same words telling the same lies. And the fact that men accept
this, that the people's anger has not destroyed these hollow clowns, strikes
me as proof that men attribute no importance to the way they are governed;
that they gamble--yes, gamble--with a whole part of their life and their
so-called 'vital interests'."

Albert Camus, 1937





> From: Tim Rodenkirk <garbledmodwit at yahoo.com>
> Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:14:44 -0700 (PDT)
> To: <obol at lists.oregonstate.edu>
> Subject: [obol] Coos Gull 4/19/2008
> 
> I found a strange gull in Charleston this morning
> while trying to get rid of some popcorn left over from
> a boat trip this past week.  I was able to attract one
> small very dark mantled adult (or 4th cycle) gull
> which I had no idea on the ID of.  It was obviously
> smaller than the Western and Glaucous-wingeds around-
> seemed about Cal Gull size to me.  Very clean looking
> head, sort of resembled a Lesser Black-backed but not
> quite especially with those pink feet. The bill and
> bill spot closely resembled the Western Gulls it was
> with.  I called up Russ Namitz and actually caught him
> at home (!) and he came out with his video camera and
> enlightened me- I think he got fairly good footage of
> a LARIX OCCIDENTALIS WYMANI.  I have obviously never
> seen this little relative of our most common coastal
> gull and was surprised at how much smaller it is than
> our "hulking" northern version of the Western Gull,
> but I was impressed.  Thanks for coming out Russ!
> 
> I think Alan C. reported one of these earlier this
> past winter.  It didn't register with me until I saw
> this bird.  They are remarkably smaller and
> darker-mantled than their northern cousin (at least
> this bird was).  Any idea on how many get reported
> each winter here in Oregon anyone?
> 
> Oh, and I want all you valley folks to know that we
> don't get the spring passerine migration here like you
> do in the valley- no hot spots to see 20 different
> species of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, etc.  We are
> stuck looking at gulls, shorebirds, WC Sparrows, and
> today, a bit of snowy rain. Oh, and then there are
> ducks and shearwaters, bet you don't see many
> shearwaters at Skinner's Butte!
> 
> Tim R
> in Snowy(?!) Coos Bay
> 
> 
> 
>       
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