Saturday, February 6, 2016

RBA: BLACK-HEADED GULL relocated in Vancouver, Feb 6-April 2nd

After careful study of the primaries it looks like this is the same bird as the Trout Lake gull seen from Jan 25-31st. See Here for the full explanation and photos.

Jim Palmer found a Black-headed Gull on the afternoon of Feb 6th as he was jogging on the Seawall at Stanley Park. The bird was on the rocks with some Mew Gulls at the base of Cardero Street at Beach Ave. He immediately noticed the blood red bill and legs and as the bird stretched he saw its black underwings. He said the bird seemed to have a different appearance to the Trout Lake bird. This is not out of the question as two different Black-headed Gull individuals recently turned up in Monroe, WA; however careful study of the primaries and facial patterns would need to be done to conclude this.

On Feb 13th he was seen by Mike Boyd in front of the Vancouver Maritime Museum

On Feb 14th, Jay Rourke relocated the Black-headed Gull at the Off-leash dog park at Spanish Banks.

On Feb 22nd the bird is was relocated at the foot of Cardero at Beach Ave.

On Feb 29th the bird is relocated at Spanish Banks Off-Leash Dog Park and continues there as of March 3rd.

On March 4th bird was relocated at the Musqueam Golf Course flying East over the Fraser River in Vancouver. The Golf Course is located at 3904 51st Ave W. in Vancouver.

On March 14th, the bird was relocated and photographed by Bridget Spencer and it was flying East over Deering Island in Vancouver.

On April 2nd the bird was relocated by Peter Candido as it sat on the Fraser River between Iona's North Jetty and Point Grey in Richmond. It has not been relocated since.

The bird has not been seen since April 2nd.

This is the 24th record for the province of BC.

Taken at Cardero at Beach Ave by David Baker

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