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mystery gull on outer banks



After finding the black-headed gull at mattamuskeet
saturday, the Chapel Hill Bird club trip was feeling
pretty smug about its gull-identifying capabilities,
but of course pride goeth before a fall.
On the beach just south of the Rodanthe pier this
morning, we spotted a gull sitting on the sand. The
bird was slightly larger than nearby Ring-bills and
his mantle and wings were very dark grey (see the
Yellow-footed Gull Adult picture in national
geographic for the approximate color, that is just a
color approximation not an ID suggestion). He had dark
smudging around the eye and top of the head and around
the back of his neck, with a white space in between.
The eye was probably dark but it was hard to tell. The
bill was long and slender, and split about 50/50
between a dark end and a pale (not yellow) near end. 
The wingtips were black with no white mirrors at all. 
The trailing edge of the wing was a fairly broad band
of white (showing as an arc between the primaries and
the rest of the wing in the seated bird, I dont know
the right terminology for that).
We studied for about 5 minutes and were going to move
closer (we were about a hundred fifty yards away) when
two people and a dog walking on the beach spooked the
bird. When it stood we saw that the legs were pale
pink/flesh colored and the final confusing straw was
that the tail was completely white, not even a speck
of black. 
As it flew off (away from us of course) we could see
that the underwing was darkish (it was hard to see)
and the tips were black, again no white at all.  There
was little contrast between the dark upperwings and
black wing tips with no separation between.  The wings
were not strikingly broad or narrow but it was hard to
tell as he flew directly away.
I have presented no suggestions as to ID because, to
be honest, we had no idea.  Every possible ID we came
up with had serious deficiencies. So here is the
description for those with more gull knowledge to
think about. Please post suggestions to the list.
P.S. The group included Doug Shadwick, Judy Murray,
Jill Froening, Karen Bearden, and myself.
Bruce Young
young715@yahoo.com
durham NC.


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