ML80501091

Age and sex

Adult, Unknown sex - X

Observation details

***Rare; All-white adult. Ring-billed size but with noticeably shorter black legs, short gray bill with yellow tip. Parking lot bird. Wasn't present when I arrived. It came in less than 10 minutes after my arrival and tried to join a small feeding group of 25 Herrings, but wasn't interested and/or able to get a foot in due to larger gulls dominating. Touch-and-go sighting lasting less than 5 minutes. After circling the parking lot a couple of times, it headed off to the northwest with what looked like no interest in returning. I spent several hours around the fairgrounds and landfill with no luck relocating it. Very likely is (or was) visiting the nearby landfill as I can't imagine any other reason why it would be at the Lake County Fairgrounds. These birds do scavenge but the dump seems like an unlikely food source to hold it for any considerable time. Obviously, the parking lot is where most birders will start looking for this bird, but open water sources with ice-shelves, as well as rivers and dams should be checked carefully. Any local ice-fishing sites may also be worth a try. Only 3 well-documented records in Illinois prior to this sighting (Meadowlark; V24 N3).

Technical information

Model

NIKON D7100

Lens

200.0-500.0 mm f/5.6

ISO

400

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/1600 sec

Dimensions

2689 pixels x 1637 pixels

Original file size

1.13 MB