We left Port Burwell today at 2:30 p.m. without seeing the Black-tailed
Gull. We talked to about 20 other birders, some of whom were present
since daylight, and no one had seen the gull from daybreak up to 2:30
p.m. All of the 5 beaches in the provincial park were well covered
throughout the day as well as the municipal beach and break wall on the
east side of Big Otter Creek. There were only a few hundred gulls on the
beaches today in small groups of a few dozen to low hundreds. There
weren't many gulls flying about over the lake either, at least not
within binocular range.
We stopped in at Port Bruce on the way home and found only Ring-billed
Gulls and a few Herring Gulls on the beach there.
For birders with lots of time on their hands, Port Stanley is another
location that can have 1000s of gulls on the beaches and break walls at
this time of the year. It might be worth checking there to see if the
Black-tailed Gull has moved over there. Port Bruce is about 15 minutes
west of Port Burwell and Port Stanley another 15 minutes west along the
lake shore road.
We also searched for the Western Kingbird for a couple of hours on
several of the concessions around yesterday's sighting without luck. We
met up with other birders who had also searched over a wide area and
none had seen the kingbird.
It's important for birders to report details that will help long
distance travelers assess how successful the trip might be and also to
report the absence of such as mega-rarity. We met birders from Michigan,
the Bruce and Toronto and there was even a car with Arizona license
plates. Many of the birders we talked to were uncertain from yesterday's
posts about whether the reports of the gull were of a bird sitting on
the beach, flying by, how far out over the lake it was, how long were
the sightings lasted and so forth. More detailed info might have made a
difference to those trying to decide on whether to make such as long
trip. All the same, thanks to Don Perks, Jody Allair and Brett Fried for
posting what they knew of yesterday's sightings.
PS A consolation for the lack of gulls today was the excellent hawk and
Blue Jay migration throughout the morning including quite a few Bald
Eagles and Merlin.
Dave Martin and Linda Wladarski
Harrietsville, ON
[email protected]
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