Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!oliveb!oliven!mjm
From: mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Trip to Mass.
Message-ID: <32011@oliveb.olivetti.com>
Date: 4 Nov 88 17:16:24 GMT
References: <691@picuxa.UUCP> <31830@oliveb.olivetti.com> <693@picuxa.UUCP>
Sender: news@oliveb.olivetti.com
Lines: 43

In article <693@picuxa.UUCP>, gpasq@picuxa.UUCP (Greg Pasquariello X1190) writes:
 > 
 > Thanks for the tips.  Do you have any for the pre-adult birds?  The one we
 > saw in Mass was a second winter bird, with a somewhat gray mantle, back, 
 > and wings.   The tips (on top) were a dusky grey-brown, the underwing tips
 > were pale (see exception below) and the bird was generally paler than a
 > herring gull of the same age.  The rump was whitish (a fairly good mark),
 > and the tail was brown with a dark brown terminal band.  The head was pale.
 
	I don't have any experience with subadult Thayer's Gulls, except for
a few first-winter birds. The above marks don't seem out of line with what
I've read. However, I think that the whitish rump is probably a distinctive
mark on a few 2nd winter gull species (Herring and Western?)

 > 	1.	The bill was that of a herring gull, not any more delicate.
 
	I've never seen a Thayer's Gull with a bill as large as a typical
Herring, but I don't know the extent of variability in this feature.

 > 	3.	The eye was yellow.  All literature says it ranges from 
 > 		brown to yellow flecked with brown, but Wayne Peterson
 > 		says it can be clear yellow (true?).
 
	Not to my knowledge. I'll bow to Wayne's greater expertise, but
I'd feel more comfortable with a literature reference for this.

 > 	4.	There were no dusky ear coverts.

	I'm not sure if this is a reliable characteristic. P.J. Grant
mentions it as a character for first-winter Thayer's, but also says that
it is exhibited by some Herrings. National Geographic illustrates their
first-winter Thayer's with a darkish ear/eye patch. On the outing that I
mentioned in my original posting, I found a small number of winter plumaged
adult Herring Gulls with a dark ear/eye patch, but none of the Thayer's
Gulls had it.

 > I believe all of the large Larus gulls (of the "herring gull type") should
 > be lumped.

	BITE YOUR TONGUE! You've been working too hard; you're under a lot
of pressure; you need a little time off! Think of the wife and kids, man! :-)

Mike