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Steve, You've got a second year Glaucous Gull. The white outer primaries distinguish it from any other gull except Iceland and based on size it points directly to Glaucous. The Iceland should be the same size as a Herring. Also the black-tipped pink bill would seperate it from a second year Iceland. Only first year birds of both species have the creamy brown color that you alluded to in the Georgia bird. Life is good................... seeing this circumpolar ghost of the Arctic . Paul Bithorn [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] Virginia Gardens, Florida From: Steve Collins <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: Steve Collins <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [FLBIRDS] NE FL Glaucous Gull (maybe) Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 13:13:37 -0500 I appreciate Rex letting the cat out of the bag that I had some photos of the Gull, which subsequently flooded my inbox with emails. My photos aren't great, and the bird was some distance away. However, here's my 2 cents. In flight the bird appeared slightly larger than the neighboring Herring, which suggests Glaucous. Indeed, the bird probably is. However, this bird was completely white (to my eyes). There was no grey, brown, or "dirty" markings anywhere on the bird, which I expected to see on a Glaucous. I suppose it's possible that at our distance, we simply couldn't see the markings, or that they did not exist if the bird was incredbly worn. Patrick Leary sent me a beautiful photo of a Glaucous Gull from Jekyll Is in GA, which shows a lot of brown pigment. I don't think this was the same bird. Fuzzy photos are posted here: http://plaza.ufl.edu/dcollins/GLGU/ Cheers, Steve Collins Gainesville, FL ____________________________________________________________________________ FLORIDABIRDS-L Listserv mailing list information: Member photos I: bkpass.tripod.com/floridabirds.htm (copy to browser) Member photos II: floridabirds-l.50megs.com (copy to browser) For archives: lists.ufl.edu/archives/floridabirds-l.html (copy to browser) Set nomail: Click: mailto:[log in to unmask] Set floridabirds-l nomail Listowner: Click: mailto:[log in to unmask] ____________________________________________________________________________ FLORIDABIRDS-L Listserv mailing list information: Member photos I: bkpass.tripod.com/floridabirds.htm (copy to browser) Member photos II: floridabirds-l.50megs.com (copy to browser) For archives: lists.ufl.edu/archives/floridabirds-l.html (copy to browser) Set nomail: Click: mailto:[log in to unmask] Set floridabirds-l nomail Listowner: Click: mailto:[log in to unmask]