Posted on 01/01/2024 5:11:07 PM PST by nickcarraway
A bird rarely seen on the West Coast is getting attention in Santa Cruz County.
The Black Headed Gull is usually found in Europe and Asia.
It was first seen on Dec. 27 in the Santa Cruz area, and today, birders flocked to Rio Del Mar to snap photos of the bird.
A 13-year-old Elias McKown helped identify the bird by calling local experts to confirm the rare sighting.
"I thought, oh maybe it's possible that's what it is because it had a red beak, so I sent it to Abram, other birders, and they confirmed it was a black headed gull, so we all came here to look for it," said McKown.
Once word got out, birders came out from all over.
The new word for “strays” among birds is “vagrancy”. I knew it as another term, but can’t recall it.
Florida’s many Cattle Egrets were once confined to Southern Africa browsing behind cattle herds.
A hundred years ago +, a storm caused a flock to be blown off-course and they settled behind cattle herds in Florida.
Either is correct:
https://blog.mybirdbuddy.com/post/vagrant-birds#:~:text=The%20term%20vagrant%2C%20or%20accidental,normal%20range%2C%20far%20from%20home
If they’d asked me, I would have suggested “delinquent”.
I knew it wasn’t a loon. Said “rarely seen on the west coast.”🤪
Ellie May was one helluva bird. What a gorgeous lady. RIP Donna Douglas. A natural beauty from a time in America now long gone.
Well everybody's talkin' about the bird.
(Twitchers!)
I’m besides myself with how utterly exciting this is.
It came in on a bus.
Lol!
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