It snowed about 70% of the day but the numbers of gulls were so impressive that we just could not quit until it was dark. Betsy and I were delighted to find Jean Iron at the Adam Beck overlook on our second morning trip there. After ogling the 20 or so ICELAND GULLS, about a half-dozen LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS, and one GLAUCOUS GULL at Beck, we decided to check the roosting rocks before lunch, hoping to find the California Gull that has been seen for weeks. These rocks are about ¼-1/2 mile south of the Adam Beck overlook. The gulls will roost on rocks that are on the NY side of the International boundary at what is known as Devils Hole or rocks on the Ontario side. We generally park at the far north end of the Butterfly Conservatory and walk north about a quarter mile until we see a pair of whitish wooden fence rails this is the optimal spot for viewing because the trees block the view almost everywhere else.
When we arrived we could see that there were many gulls on the rocks on the NY side. It did not take Betsy long before she stated that she may have the California Gull. It was not the California Gull, however. It was better because it was an adult MEW GULL! We watched the bird for a long time and even had it flying around below us here feeding and then returning to the rocks. The phone calls began and we thank Ron Pittaway and Chris Newton for posting our sighting so quickly and also Mike Galas for putting it on the Buffalo one-call-now rare bird alert. As I said the number of gulls on the river right now are really impressive, both large and small gulls. We had 1-2 LITTLE GULLS in the narrow section of Lewiston-Queenston downriver from the L-Q Bridge. At the control gates we only looked very briefly and had 2 GLAUCOUS, 1 LESSER BBG, and a few ICELAND GULLS amongst enormous numbers of large gulls. There was a huge raft of BONAPARTES GULLS just above Niagara Falls but we never got a chance to look them over. We ended the day at Adam Beck after missing the MEW GULL at the roosting rocks by minutes (seen by Chris Newton from the NY side). At Beck we had quite a pale adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL and an adult NELSONS GULL (Herring Glaucous hybrid) plus two additional GLAUCOUS GULLS and a couple of THAYERS GULLS. No definite sighting of the California Gull by us today. Good birding! Willie ---------------- Willie D'Anna Betsy Potter Wilson, NY dannapotterATroadrunner.com http://www.betsypottersart.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
