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Yesterday on the Lake Erie Islands Count I had a very interesting gull that
may have been a slaty-backed.  Unlike the Lorain bird it seemed to be right
on with all field marks.  The problem is that I was the only one to see it
and I was unable to photograph the wingtips.


I originally found it east of the marina where the ferry comes in.  I viewed
it there for 5-10 minutes.  The whole time it was floating by on an ice
chunk it flew once to a different chunk.  At that point in time I got a shot
of the trailing edge of the wings.  It then floated behind a small pier and
when I positioned my car it evidently flew because I was never able to
relocate it.  On the ferry ride back I relocated it about a mile off-shore.
At this point in time it flew and I got a look at the wing-tip pattern.  The
look was fairly brief unfortunately.


Here is a brief description.  (SB) indicates slaty-backed gull traits.


It was an adult.  Slightly larger than a herring gull with a little stronger
build.  The head was white with some streaking.  The streaking was darkest
around the eye area (SB).  Streaking was also slightly darker on the rear
sides of the neck and nape.  The eye was pale.  the bill was a
yellowish-straw color with a sub terminal red and black mark similar to
California gull (SB?).  The undersides and tail were white.  The mantle was
a slaty-gray and was at least 1, maybe 2 shades darker than lesser
black-backed.  The white on the trailing edge of the wing was quite broad
(SB).  This width of white was wider than on any of our typical gulls.


The wingtips had the traditional "string-of-pearls" (SB).  The tips were
black and the white in the primaries formed a string of white extending
inward.  The undersides of the wingtips were a silvery-gray (SB).

References online:

Some Slaty-backed Gull photos from Japan.

And this page. The bird second down is almost identical to what this bird looked like as far as build etc. The bill pattern on the first bird resembled the Kelley's bird. Hopefully somebody relocates the bird.

John adds - it looks somewhat similar to Ontario's first record

Page established 17 December 2002; copyright 2002 Victor W. Fazio III