I have been going through piles of items accumulated over the years
and discovered this list, authored by Rich Stallcup. He suggested a ten-point
scale for gull mantle colors, from lightest to darkest.
With wintering gulls appearing now, I thought it might interest many of you.
Rich was a well-respected and stellar birder, tour leader, writer, naturalist,
environmentalist and human being who died in 2012, four days before his 68th
birthday. He lived in California, and was a cofounder of the Point Reyes Bird
Observatory.
The scale starts with white and moves through shades of gray to the
darkest-mantled gulls.
1 - Ivory
2 - Glaucous, Black-headed
3 - Herring, Ring-billed
4 - Glaucous-winged, Thayer's (4.5)
5 - Mew, Glaucous-winged x Western hybrids
6 - California
7 - Western (L. O occidentalis) - northern birds
8 - Western (L. O wymanii) - southern birds
9 - Slaty-backed
10 - Great Black-backed
Barbara Combs
Lane County, Oregon
POST: Send your post to obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
JOIN OR QUIT: //www.freelists.org/list/obol
OBOL archives: www.freelists.org/archive/obol
Contact moderator: obol-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
