A Travellerspoint blog

Twitch: ROSS’S GULL

Chicago, IL

overcast 38 °F

Upon waking up at home on this last saturday of spring break, I found my phone bombarded with rare bird alerts about a mega-rare Ross’s Gull, an Arctic species the hasn’t sighted in Illinois since 1978. Since the bird was reported at Rainbow Beach Park, a familiar place a drivable distance away before I had to fly back to NYC, I threw on clothes, drove my mom to work battling St. Patrick’s day traffic, and soon enough arrived at Rainbow Beach.

My hopes were high when I saw the dozens of birders lined up along the beach:
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THERE IT WAS!
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WOW! A truly high-arctic species that I was absolutely not expecting to see while home in Chicago, but perfect proof that I should indeed bring my camera just in case!
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Here it is juxtaposed with a RING-BILLED GULL:
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Distant RED-BREASTED MERGANSER:
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REDHEAD:
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And back to the Ross’s:
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It was great to see its beautiful wings in flight:
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After admiring the gull for a long time as well as catching up with several birders like Simon, Peter, Henry M, Owen, and Jacob, I headed over to Park 566 to search for a Western Meadowlark and all 3 Scoter species that had been seen from there recently. There were some distant WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS in Indiana waters:
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Here pictured with a single drake SURF SCOTER, the second bird from the right:
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And a female BLACK SCOTER, completing the Scoter trifecta — the first time I have had all three in one day in Illinois/Indiana waters!
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There were a few HORNED GREBES in the slip, apparently they’ve been numerous along the lakefront this winter:
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What an amazing day of birding! Bird-of-the-day obviously goes to the Ross’ Gull with runners-up to the three Scoter species. But now, here is the real reason I came home from break — Poppy!!!
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STAY TUNED!

Henry
World Life List: 1150 Species (1 life bird today: Ross’s Gull)

Posted by skwclar 22:19 Archived in USA

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Ross's: Those wings!Wow!

by Mary McCutchan

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