The CT coastline has
numerous great spots for “gulling”. And
one of the best times to go gulling on the coast can be when plankton feeding
occurs in spring. Each spring I
anxiously watch the CT listserve hoping for sightings of large flocks of
Bonaparte’s which sometimes include a Little Gull – the last regular rare gull
I need for my CT statelist. However, chasing
after spring rare gulls on the CT coast can be challenging - the best plankton
feeding spots seem to vary somewhat from year to year, and a good day at one
spot one day could be followed few gull sightings at that same location the
next day. Hence a key reason I still haven’t
successfully chased after a Little Gull in CT.
The spring 2016 CT gull sightings started
not with large numbers of Bonaparte’s but instead a report of a Mew Gull at Hammonasset
Beach State Park. I had a Mew Gull in
Southbury, CT in 2014 so didn’t need to chase this one for my CT statelist. But then a second Mew was spotted, and this
one was the first CT record of the even rarer mainland US subspecies some call
a “Short-billed” Gull. As a candidate
for a split someday I was tempted to go chase after it. But free time was limited so I decided to forego
the chase.
Then the next day a somewhat cryptic e-mail
was posted on the CT listserve titled – “Cali-type
Gull Hammo-3:50”. I didn’t recognize the
observer’s name, and no details were included, so didn’t want to get too
excited about the bird just yet. Then
Mark Szantyr posted that he saw the photo and confirmed the ID as the first CT
state record of California Gull. But the
bird was not refound later that day in the large flock of 4-5,000 gulls plankton
feeding at Hammo, so I questioned how chaseable it might be. That is until the next day when the
California was spotted early and often throughout the day, along with the continuing
Mew Gulls. And numerous photos of the
immature California were posted, improving my chances of being able to pick out
the target bird in a big gull flock. The
chase was on.
The next day I was able
to take some time off and was at Hammonasset by mid-morning. When I arrived there were at least a dozen
birders looking out on the gull flock on the water and the beach. Unfortunately there were no more than just 150
birds in view. And the birders reported
that although the California had been seen earlier in the morning, it had not been
spotted for some time. Now with a much
smaller flock of gulls at Hammo I worried that the target bird had moved on with
the rest of the flock to a better feeding location. Was this another example of the plankton
feeding locations changing on a daily basis?
A couple birders kept trying to turn immature Ring-bills into the
California with no luck. Then someone
mentioned to check out another bird at the back of the flock. I panned in that general direction and
instantly picked out the target California Gull. I guess didn’t need to stress out after all.
I stayed at the park
for the next several hours, and the California was seen off and on much of that
time. And most of the time the bird was
quite cooperative, allowing me to get these passable phonescoped photos.
Unfortunately the Mew
Gulls did not return while I was there, but at least I don’t need that one for
my CT statelist based on the present counting rules. Though I still need Little Gull for CT.
California Gull was
#327 for my CT statelist. And it was my
second New England state for this species – I found an adult California in MA back
in 1994. Plus of course I’ve seen it in
numerous western states (see my statebird map below).
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