Last weekend, I photographed this Lesser Black-backed Gull at Rainbow Beach in Chicago, IL (along Lake Michigan):
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| LBBG (2nd cycle). Rainbow Beach. Chicago, IL (Cook County). 13 Dec 2014. Photo by Amar Ayyash. |
Then today, by complete coincidence, Matthew Winks posted this photo on the North American Gulls Facebook Group:
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| LBBG (2nd cycle). EastPort Marina. East Peoria, Illinois. 20 December 2014. Photo by Matthew Winks. |
Notice something? Yes, it's the same individual that was on the Chicago lakefront the previous Saturday. Only now it's hanging out in East Peoria, Illinois, approximately 150 miles from where I observed it.
Here are both birds on the water, in nearly the same pose:
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| Chicago, IL. 13 Dec 2014. Photo by Amar Ayyash. |
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| East Peoria, IL. 20 Dec 2014. Photo by Matthew Winks. |
Stumbling upon this neat data point is more surprising to me than learning this bird was seen 150 miles to the south a week later. Matthew and I both think it may have followed the river-ways until it hooked up with the Illinois River. This isn't the first time that Matthew happens upon gulls from the Chicago lakefront. Before this, he had also recorded a couple of the Ring-billeds that were fitted with colored patagial tags from the Dime Pier/Lake Calumet colonies.
Gulls are powerful fliers and very gregarious. They're skilled at finding other gulls that are on to a good food source, and that's likely what this one-and-a-half year old did. It's a great time to be alive where digital cameras, text messaging and the internet allow for information to be exchanged rapidly!