Update: March 29, 2000: three
head-shots of vegae for comparison - plus a link to more
vegae photos (bottom of page). Update: March 12, 2000: new
photo added at bottom of page. Update: March 8, 2000: added
new links to pics of vegae on the Internet, plus added
a new scan that shows the orbital ring color (bottom of page).
This bird showing the characteristics of Vega Gull Larus (argentatus) vegae was photographed at Corpus Christi Landfill
on March 6, 2000 by Willie Sekula and Martin Reid. Willie had
originally seen it on Feb. 26 and suspected vegae, but
did not see the open wing and only obtained poor standing photos.
It was fairly easy to find in the standing flock, as the mantle
was obviously darker than smithsonianus HEGU and Ring-billed
Gull:
- in the field we estimated that the mantle was half-a-shade lighter
than LAGU and one shade darker than smith./RBGU; at one
point it was with smiths and about 8 ft. from an adult
California Gull (CAGU); it was half-a-shade darker than the CAGU
(i.e. the CAGU was darker than the smiths but paler than
this bird), but this particular CAGU was large and
very pale, and we suspect it was albertaensis - certainly
it was paler than most CAGUs we see in Texas. We felt that the
vegae-like bird was very close to the shade of a californicus
CAGU.
- The upperparts were a mixture of worn and fresh feathers (with
more worn than fresh); the legs were a rich pink; most smiths
had paler fleshy-pink legs, but a couple probably matched the
intensity of this bird (the one SBGU we had in Texas had similarly
rich pink legs, and again there were a couple of smiths
that matched it). The eye was described by all as "medium",
i.e. clearly darker than normal smith, but not truly dark
- more of an amber tone. the orbital ring was seen via telescope
at very close range to be dark reddish-orange. The bill was longish
but rather thick, with a small gonydal angle; it was mid-yellow
with the culmen slightly richer-yellow and a small, clean orangy-red
gonydal spot. The streaking on the lower nape had a warm brown
tone to it - warmer than on any smith seen that day (c.
100 adult birds). On the folded wings, the tail almost reached
the tip of P7; P5 had a narrow but even black band, and on both
wings P4 had a tiny "nick" of black on the outer edge.
- in flight the most striking feature was the clear "string
of pearls" effect created by large white spots/bands between
the gray basal part and black subterminal band on P5-8, plus the
mirrors on P9 and P10; this was obvious even from below. Also
note the band of medium gray on the underwing, due to the darkness
of the gray upperparts. We saw an adult LBBG ( a typical Texas
bird that was half-a-shade darker than LAGUs) that day in the
same conditions, and the vegae-like bird was clearly paler
on the underwing than the LBBG but darker than on any smiths
seen in flight.
- there is evidence that P6 has some abrasion half-way along the
inner web.
- the white trailing edge of the secondaries was very thick; about
3/4 the length of the bill and thicker than on a few sample smiths
we studied in flight.
- in the above image P9 is displaced and is the uppermost primary
(with P10 below it); note how the mirror of P9 does not reach
the outer edge of the feather, and that the long gray tongue of
P9 ends with a thin whitish "mini-pearl".
- on the underside P10 has a gray tongue of c. one-third its visible
length (beyond the coverts) and P9 has a gray tongue of more than
two-thirds the visible length.
- even at marginal angles, the "string of pearls" was
very evident.
Images of vegae are hard to locate: in Grant's GULLS
book, look at page 264, plates 256 and 257; In the Large
Gulls Video, vegae is shown externsively in the section on
Slaty-backed Gull; on the internet look at an
adult in my pages, adults
at Angus Wilson's site, Peter
Post's pics at Bob Lewis' site, Allen
Chartier's adult-basic pic at Bob Lewis' site, and the Vega Gull entry at Steve
Hampton's site (where the range map shows how vegae
regularly winters at the equivalent latitude of south Texas).
In the referenced images there is some evidence that vegae
is either a late-molter or suspends its molt during migration
(as done by other high-latitude-breeding, long-distance large
gulls); This Texas bird seems to have visibly fresher outer primaries
than inner ones, suggesting a suspended molt(?)
The observers ( Sekula, Reid, John and Barbara Ribble) feel that
this individual shows a full suite of vegae features without
any contradictory points, BUT our knowledge of this form is very
limited, so we invite comment from
anyone with experience of vegae (as always, I will assume
your comments can be shared on the internet unless you indicate
otherwise).
- as shown here, the orbital ring was very dark, thus its true
color is hard to discern; it was not pure red, and was not pure
orange - but somewhere in-between (a bit closer to orange than
to red, though, I feel). Update: March 29, 2000: One
or two people who have seen numbers of vegae in Alaska
in the Summer/Fall have remarked that the head shape of the Texas
bird was not typical of birds seen in Alaska. I wonder if something
about the winter head-streaking imparts a slightly different jizz
to the head shape; here are some Alaska vegaes (courtesy
of Don Cunningham) with a similar head shape, for comparison;
eight full-profile images of Alaskan vegae by Don are
now available at my Vega Gull Section:
