Mew Gull, Southbury, CT, February, 2014

An exciting second CT record of Mew Gull was reported on a Thursday in a large flock of Ring-billed Gulls at a chicken farm in Southbury.  The bird was refound on Friday, but it and most of the flock did not appear until midday.  So word went out to birders coming on future days that there was no real need to arrive until midday.  NH birding buddy Denny Abbott and I planned to make the trek down to western CT on Saturday, but thought it was best to go in the early morning just in case the bird appeared earlier that day.

I picked up Denny at 7:15 and we arrived in Southbury at 9:45.  As we approached the chicken farm site we saw a large flock of gulls circling low over a fallow field next to the farm, others were perched on the farm building, some were feeding in an upper field where rotten pumpkins had been spread, and a few were on the adjacent Housatonic River.  Maybe 500 or more gulls in total, mostly Ring-bills with a few Herrings and a couple Great Black-backs.  The flock was definitely here – now we just had to find the one target bird in a sea of many.  Surprisingly there were no other birders present, so we’d just have to find the bird on our own.  Most of the flock landed in the field adjacent to the road, so we parked on the shoulder and started to scan the group with binocs.  Although the flock kept flying around apparently spooked by an immature Bald Eagle in the area, they would return to the field.  Unfortunately we never had a chance to look at the entire flock before they flew each time, so that meant we had to start a new search each time the flock landed.  But each time we failed to find the Mew Gull.  Where was our target?  You would think it would still be around.  We started to wonder about the birds farther away on the hill, and whether there were still more in the river which was now out of sight. 

At about 10:45 we repositioned the car to check out a different part of the flock.  And literally the first bird I looked at was the adult Mew Gull, sitting in the field practically right next to us not more than 75 feet away.  By then a few other birders arrived and I was able to get them all on the bird.  I got these phonescoped photos of the bird as the bird continued to be most cooperative. 

 

Within 10 minutes of finding it, the bird flew up to the field with the rotten pumpkins, and walked among the Ring-bills for a couple minutes, showing good size comparisons.  But a minute later it was gone, not to be seen again that day, despite many other birders there looking for it that afternoon.  Boy were we lucky.

 

Mew Gull was #310 for me in CT.  And CT was my sixth eastern state where I’ve seen Mew Gull as a rarity (see my statebird map below).