01 July 2025

Featured Highlights - July 2025

Welcome to Featured Highlights, July 2025. This video series aims to highlight ideas found in The Gull Guide - North America. I'll be expanding on and detailing concepts you're reading about in the book, beginning with establishing a foundation for molt and plumage. 

This 7th video covers the identification of adult Kelp Gulls, which has become relevant given the recent celebrity adult found nesting with and American Herring Gull in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.


Click on thumbnail above and watch in HD.
Requests and suggestions can be forwarded to thegullguide@gmail.com
 


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June 2025 Monthly Notables

Sightings:

  • Kelp Gull (adult). Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. 01 June 2025.
    • 1ST STATE RECORD*.
  • Glaucous Gull (2nd cycle type). Virginia Beach County, Virginia. 01 June 2025.
  • Black-headed Gull (2nd cycle). Lambton County, Ontario. 02 June 2025.
  • Glaucous Gull (2nd cycle). Portage la Prairie County, Manitoba. 04 June 2025.
  • Thayer's Gull (2nd cycle). Sitka City & Borough, Alaska. 05 June 2025.
  • Ross's Gull (adult). Nome Census Area, Alaska. 06 June 2025.
  • Sabine's Gull (2nd cycle). Kleberg County, Texas. 06 June 2025.
  • Sabine's Gull (adult). Rockingham County, New Hampshire. 08 June 2025.
  • Black-headed Gull (adult). Fairfield County, Ohio. 09 June 2025.
    • Seen in Delaware County, Ohio the next day, 10 June 2025.
  • Black-headed Gull (2nd cycle). Bay County, Michigan. 18 June 2025. 
    • Apparently, the same individual from Lambton County, Ontario.
  • Black-tailed Gull (adult). Buldir Island, Alaska. 16 June 2025.
  • Vega Gull (3rd cycle). Sitka, Alaska. 16 June 2025.
  • Lesser Black-backed Gull (3rd cycle). King County, Washington. 17 June 2025.
  • Sabine's Gull (2nd cycle). Cape May County, New Jersey. 19 June 2025.
  • California Gull (2nd cycle). Lake County, Indiana. 20 June 2025.
  • Franklin's Gull (2nd cycle type). St. John's County, Newfoundland. 23 June 2025. 
  • Laughing Gull (2nd cycle type). St. John's County, Newfoundland. 23 June 2025. 
  • Ross's Gull (adult). Baffin County, Nunavut. 26 June 2025.
  • Ivory Gull (adult). Baffin County, Nunavut. 26 June 2025.
  • Little Gull (3 2nd cycle type, 1 adult). Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. 30 June 2025.
  • Ross's Gull (adult). Baffin County, Nunavut. 30 June 2025.
  • Iceland Gull (2nd cycle). Portage la Prairie County, Manitoba. 30 June 2025.


Notes:

  • The Milwaukee Kelp Gull (male), now seen by hundreds of birders, was present all through the month of June in an industrial rooftop colony, hybridizing with an American Herring Gull. Long time Wisconsin birder Tom Schultz unknowingly photographed this adult on a nest last June (2024) and only discovered the black-backed gull while editing his images months later. At the time, it was understandably assumed to be a Great Black-backed Gull. In late May of 2025 (almost one year later), Amar Ayyash independently followed up on this sighting, and much to his surprise, not only found that the bird had returned to the same spot, he found it had yellow legs! After studying the bird and securing open wing images, it was identified as a Kelp Gull by Ayyash. The only known chick was found dead on 17 June 2025. The adult pair was seen bonding, copulating and reinforcing their nest the following day. Both adults have been seen intermittently resting on the nest and copulating a number of times, but it is unknown if new eggs have been laid. It'll be interesting to learn what July brings, and furthermore, whether or not the bird returns in 2026. Interestingly, this event constitutes Wisconsin's 1st State record, and it is the first confirmed occurrence of a Kelp Gull nesting in North America, outside of the Chandeleur Islands where American Herrings and Kelp Gulls were first discovered hybridizing around the year 1990. Furthermore, it is the farthest north a Kelp Gull has ever nested, worldwide!

  • On 05 June 2025, Kalin Ocana reported a nesting hybrid pair that appeared to involve a Western x Glaucous-winged (so-called Olympic Gull) paired with an American Herring Gull on Kopje Island in Lake Country in the Okanagan Valley. Although this three-way hybrid has been suspected in the past, this is the first documented nest site that I know of.

  • An adult Western Gull from the Farallon Islands, fit with a GPS logger, has been documented hitching a ride in a long-haul transfer truck from San Francisco to the Central Valley of California. The female gull was recorded doing this on two separate occasions, two days apart. More can be found in the most recent issue of Waterbirds, 48(1): 1-5. 
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01 June 2025

Featured Highlights - June 2025

Welcome to Featured Highlights, June 2025. This video series aims to highlight ideas found in The Gull Guide - North America. I'll be expanding on and detailing concepts you're reading about in the book, beginning with establishing a foundation for molt and plumage. 

This 6th video addresses a gateway ID that is one of the first hurdles encountered by beginning birders, and that is Thayer's Gull versus American Herring. Distinguishing these two can often be done with perched birds, but an open wing is almost always used for reassurance. 


Requests and suggestions can be forwarded to thegullguide@gmail.com










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May 2025 Monthly Notables

Sightings:

  • Black-headed Gull (1st cycle). Toronto County, Ontario. 03 May 2025. 
  • Heermann's Gull (6th cycle/adult). Dare County, North Carolina. 05 May 2025.
    • Atlantic coast bird, presumably, back here since early March 2025.
  • Little Gull (adult). Saginaw County, Michigan. 04 May 2025.
  • Glaucous Gull (1st cycle). Portage la Prairie Area County, Manitoba. 08 May 2025.
  • Thayer's Gull (1st cycle). Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. 08 May 2025.
  • Slaty-backed Gull (adult). Anchorage Municipality, (Anchorage) Alaska. 10 May 2025.
  • Glaucous Gull (1st cycle). Willacy County, Texas. 12 May 2025.
  • California Gull (3rd cycle). Essex County, Ontario. 15 May 2025.
  • California Gull (2nd cycle). Toronto County, Ontario. 16 May 2025.
  • Laughing Gull (adult type). Algoma County, Ontario. 18 May 2025.
    • 1st for Algoma District.
  • Black-headed Gull (1st cycle). Essex County, Ontario. 18 May 2025.
  • Franklin's Gull (adult). Aroostook County, Maine. 19 May 2025.
    • 1st County Record.
  • Glaucous Gull (1st cycle). Lincoln County, Oregon. 19 May 2025.
    • Here since late April 2025.
  • Black-headed Gull (adult type). Grey County, Ontario. 21 May 2025.
  • California Gull (2nd cycle). Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. 22 May 2025.
  • Laughing Gull (adult type). Clatsop County, Oregon. 25 May 2025.
  • Sabine's Gull (1st cycle type). Cape May County, New Jerey. 27 May 2025.
  • Slaty-backed Gull (adult). Thunder Bay County, Ontario. 27 May 2025.
  • Ross Gull (adult & 1st cycle). Nome Census Area, (Gambell) Alaska. 28 May 2025.
  • Vega Gull (adult). North Slope Barrow, (Utqiagvik) Alaska. 31 May 2025.
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02 May 2025

Featured Highlights - May 2025

Welcome to Featured Highlights, May 2025. This video series aims to highlight ideas found in The Gull Guide - North America. I'll be expanding on and detailing concepts you're reading about in the book, beginning with establishing a foundation for molt and plumage. 

This fifth video briefly reviews the start of the 2nd prebasic molt, and then focuses on the differences between 2nd cycle and 3rd cycle in large gulls. Distinguishing these two can often be done with perched birds, but sometimes an open wing is needed, and is safest when aging large gulls. 


Requests and suggestions can be forwarded to thegullguide@gmail.com

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April 2025 Monthly Notables

Sightings:

  • Yellow-footed Gull (2nd cycle). San Diego County, California. 01 April 2025.
  • Black-headed Gull (adult). Niagara County, Ontario. 02 April 2025.
  • Gray Gull (adult type). Mobile County, Alabama. 05 April 2025.
  • Black-legged Kittiwake (1st cycle). Galveston County, Texas. 19 April 2025.
  • Glaucous Gull (adult). Graham County, Arizona. 20 April 2025. 
    • Extraordinary sighting of an adult bird already molting flight feathers.
  • Little Gull (adult). Polk County, Minnesota. 24 April 2025.
  • Gray Gull (adult type). Cameron Parish, Louisiana. 25 April 2025.
    • 1ST STATE RECORD. Apparently, the FL/AL individual.
  • Yellow-footed Gull (2nd cycle). Stanislaus County, California. 27 April 2025.




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01 April 2025

Featured Highlight - April 2025

Welcome to Featured Highlights, April 2025. This video series aims to highlight ideas found in The Gull Guide - North America. I'll be expanding on and detailing concepts you're reading about in the book, beginning with establishing a foundation for molt and plumage. 

This fourth video briefly reviews the various molt strategies found in gulls, and then explains how/when the 2nd molt cycle commences. Viewers should know that "1st cycle", "2nd cycle" and so on, are NOT plumages, but rather, molt events that typically align to a year-long process. 


Requests and suggestions can be forwarded to thegullguide@gmail.com


                                         
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