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Re: Sabine's Gull - Friday AM



On 10/3/03 12:52 PM, "Will Cook" <cwcook@duke.edu> wrote:

> The juvenile Sabine's Gull at Lake Hickory NC was still in its usual
> spot this morning.  I arrived at 6:55 am on this frosty morning and
> found the lake was totally fogged in.  The sun rose at 7:30 and started
> to (very) slowly burn off the fog.  At about 8:40, as you could start
> to see a little, Rick Knight (who had driven from Johnson City TN)
> arrived.  Just as he was setting up his scope and I was telling him
> about the no-show, the gull emerged from the fog.  It flew around for a
> few minutes, giving us good looks, stopped to eat some fish, flew
> around some more, and ate more fish.  It was sitting in the water in
> front of the cell tower when I left at 9:15 am.  Too far for
> digiscoping, unfortunately.  Rick and I were the only birders there
> this morning.  Great lifer -- thanks, Dwayne!

I'm delighted this gull is hanging around for folks to enjoy.  Tricia and I
were a little surprised to be the only people looking for it on Wednesday
morning. (Well, there was an inquisitive sheriff's deputy...)

We speculated that birders might not realize how stunningly rare Sabine's
Gull is at inland locales...to the best of my knowledge, this is only the
4th such occurrence within the last 50 years (including the recent 9/25/03
Lake Norman sighting).

A Sabine's Gull appeared at Salem Lake (in Winston-Salem, NC) on Oct 2, 1976
and remained until Oct 6. It was seen by many observers, and a photograph of
the bird appeared on the cover of the Chat.  I happen to know who the
photographer was...I may try to track down a copy of the photo and post it
on the CBC web site.  (I'd love to have a photo of the Lake Hickory bird,
for my own personal use.)

There have only been 10 NC coastal reports (observed from land, some
storm-related) of Sabine's Gull, and only 9 pelagic reports within the last
50 years.

I'm only aware of 3 SC reports.

Sabine's Gull is just a plain tough bird to see in NC.  If responsibilities
permit, I encourage folks to try for it tomorrow morning.

-- 
Russ Tyndall
Wake Forest, NC
www.redshanksoftware.com