Ivory Gull records

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• Next message: BlkVulture@aol.com: "Snickers Gap, 14 Sep 98"
• Previous message: Rob Hilton: "Re: Ivory Gull update from Les Willis"

Howdy all!

        The recent report of an Ivory Gull in Virginia last
weekend picqued my curiosity about records for this high arctic
gull in the Lower 48.

        I had already done a little research on this bird before
my trip to Alaska earlier this year.  Best chances there (in
Spring) are in Gambell in early May, highly dependent on weather
conditions and the amount of pack ice near shore (more is
better).  Your chances are roughly 50-50.  Ross' Gull is about 1
in 4 (recently maybe less) there at the same time.

        Here's what I could find about lower 48 records in
_America's 100 Most Wanted Birds_ by Steven G. Mlodinow and
Michael O'Brien, Falcon Press, 1996:

        "Most Ivory Gull records have been between late
        November and early March with a peak between
        late December and mid-January.  There are also
        two April and two late-October sightings.  The
        two truly startling unseasonable records,
        however, have to be the bird in Dodge County,
        Wisconsin, on July 24, 1972, and another at Fort
        Peck, Montana, on May 25, 1974."

-Greg Miller
Lusby, MD

• Next message: BlkVulture@aol.com: "Snickers Gap, 14 Sep 98"
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