“This is a bird that they all wanted on their list, and now they’ve got it.”
Jeff Heinlen, Biologist with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
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| Photo by Dominic Sherony |
A rare Arctic gull was spotted last month on the shore of Palmer Lake near Loomis, Washington (population 312), and bird-watchers from around the country and Canada have flocked to the tiny town to take a look. The bird is a Ross’s gull, and it was first seen December 15 feeding on a deer carcass. Birders say that typically only one Ross’s gull per year is seen south of the Canadian border, and the last and only other time one visited Washington was in 1994. The closest population of Ross’s gulls breeds near Manitoba, Canada hundreds of miles north of Minnesota. No one knows how this gull made it to Washington, or how long it will stay, so bird-watchers aren’t wasting any time trekking to Loomis to see the “mega-bird” and add it to their life list.
If, like me, you’re a bird-watcher at heart but can’t travel to Washington, one of the lucky bird lookers caught the Ross’s gull on video. Take a look:
Read more → K. C. Mehaffey, Bird-watchers flock to glimpse town’s rare gull, The Wenatchee World, December 26, 2011. [Reprinted in The Seattle Times]
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