Hi everyone, unfortunately I had something come up today and haven't had a chance to upload any photos. Just a quick note to say that I agree with Jay Lehman's analysis and the bird does appear to be a typical Great Black-backed Gull in just about every way other than its size, which is apparently at the smallest extreme for the species. The wing pattern is perfectly typical for GBB and eliminates Western and Slaty-backed. Western would not have such an extensive P9 mirror (in fact it should have none) and Slaty-backed should have considerably more visible "pearls". I don't see any compelling reason to consider hybrid origin other than the size, which again is extreme but probably not totally out of bounds for GBB. Sorry for the delay in uploading new photos. I think the photos John P. Uploaded to rarebird.org show the key features very well. Geoff Malosh Pittsburgh ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]