One of the great things about living on Vancouver Island is the time spent waiting for a ferry to either travel to the mainland or to visit one of the Gulf Islands. We took a trip to Salt Spring Island during the March Break and while waiting in the ferry lineup I had the opportunity to take a few photographs of some cooperative gulls.
These two gulls are either Western Gulls (Larus occidentalis) or Western/Glaucous-winged Gull hybrids. While their backs aren’t exceptionally dark slate-gray the wing-tips are definitely black and much darker than the mantle which suggests Western Gull. The other field marks for Western Gull are pretty good—yellow/orange orbital ring, lighter eye with a dark iris, and a pinkish gape. As a result, I’m leaning more toward “purish” Western Gull. The bill is nice and heavy as well which fits with the Western Gull.
That said, I am no gull expert by any stretch of the imagination. If anyone wants to chip in their two cents on a positive identification of these two gulls I’d be happy to hear a second opinion!
Note that no gulls were fed in order to get these photographs. However, I had the feeling that they were expecting a little bribe for being so obliging.