There’s this stretch of 320th Street in Federal Way, a bit east of I-5, just business parks trees and gas stations. Probably just a bit out of sight is water – tiny plots of wetland maintained by the city, maybe a little lake? I don’t know the neighborhood that well, but I pass through it a lot.
Anyway, for the second time I have seen these birds I cannot identify. It’s hard to get a good look at them when driving past, even from my spot in the passenger seat. I see them flying over the street or near it, thirty to sixty feet up, in a tight formation of several birds. Colorwise and regionwise, I would assume glaucous-winged gull. After all, just west of the highway at the mall, they’re so numerous that I imagine they’re nesting. These are very white birds. I feel like a glimpsed just a little streak of black from the coverts or the body.
But their wings are too short, their wingbeats too fast. Not waterfowl fast, but close. Maybe they fly more like big gulls when they get to higher altitude. Still, they have me so flummoxed I looked up all the waterfowl with white bodies. My views of them have been so fleeting I think it’s possible I missed a dark head or legs. But all the significantly white ducks have too much black on their wings, couldn’t be them.
I’ve even thought, a flock of white pigeons? They are smaller than glaucous-winged gulls, but I think still too large to be pigeons. After all that, I am thinking they are one of the smaller gull species, like ring-billed. I can’t rule out tern, but again, don’t most terns have very long wings?
The reason I was so specific with the location is that if, by chance, an expert birder remembers driving through that spot, and what they saw there, this might be an easy answer. If I can’t work it out, I’m just going to have to commit a day of my life to camping out at the side of a busy road with the hobos, and watching the sky.
–
Tethys says
Based on the fast wingbeats I would guess they are Common Terns, or Arctic Terns migrating through. They look white from a distance and alight on the water in large flocks.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tern
Tethys says
I have never perceived Tern wings as being much longer than a comparable sized gull wing, though the silhouette in flight is more pointed. They look very different to gulls when they sit on the water too. The tail is held upwards, unlike the footballish shape of gulls or ducks.
nifty says
Opinions of a western WA bird watcher of 35 years. No tern is common here this time of year, especially inland. We have large numbers of ring-billed gulls and short-billed gulls (older name mew gull, before being split as a separate species) Our most “tern-like” gull is bonaparte’s which can be common on some salt water areas like point no point and Tacoma narrows. I think your initial reaction of one of the smaller gull species is correct.
nifty says
One more thought: judging size of birds in flight without a close reference can be really hard sometimes. Your first take that they flew like gulls is important data
Great American Satan says
thethys – these gave the impression of being less pointy, like, i could almost imagine they were pigeons if they weren’t so different. but i think, good thoughts. i have seen caspian terns down at point defiance, similar small group in close formation, and again, just a glimpse flying between trees.
nifty – thank you as well. am leaning toward mini-gulls, tho it’s strange i’ve only ever seen them there, and not very close to substantial water that i’m aware of. i wonder if they spend as much time inland as larger gulls do.
nifty says
Really the only gulls that seem to stick closer to salt water seem to be the bonapartes. Ring-billed and short -billed gulls nest on freshwater lakes and can be seen anywhere here in this area fall to spring. The caspian terns have all moved out for the year. The bigger gulls here are actually largely hybrids of varying degrees between glaucous-winged and western gulls. I do drive the area you are describing fairly frequently and routinely see gulls over I-5.
We do have migration of arctic terns here but they are very rare inland-the mostly migrate as pelagic birds over the open ocean here.