Sharon and I were up early this morning to travel up to Port Orange, FL in search of the Black-headed gull which has been seen sporadically in the area. When it does show up, it is generally in the same spot, a dock along a back road which runs along the Halifax River. We've made several trips up here already, after all, it is only a 20 minute drive. But up until this morning, this is one chased bird which has eluded us. When we arrived, we found 4 other birders who had been on the site for at least an hour with no results. We arrived at 7:45AM and spent over an hour checking out the one dock on which the bird was 'supposed' to appear. Several of the birding party left after an hour or so, but one more arrived.
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| Bonaparte's gull (left) with Black-headed gull |
We spent another 15 minutes or so and then discussed the possibility of heading out to breakfast and then returning for a bit more effort in spotting the bird. All of a sudden, Laura, the newest on the scene, announced she had the bird in the scope! As we all got on the bird, the party which had left returned, saying they just had to give it one more try. And so, we all had good looks and nice photo-ops of this Florida rarity. Normally the bird will only occasionally appear in the NE United States. And so, the opportunity to add this bird to our Florida life-list as well as our Year-list was well received. Another chase has yielded a wonderful bird.
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