Ivory Gull-Plymouth

Headed out from fringed Belchertown this morning (-7 degrees) with Tom Gagnon to Plymouth, Mass in hopes of finding the Ivory Gull that had been present for the past week behind the East Bay Grille Restaurant . We arrived around 8:00AM to find 10-15 telescopes and high powered cameras aimed at the spotless white gull from the heart of the arctic.

The Gull was no more than 35 feet away glowing in the early morning sun, feeding on the carcass of a chicken-perhaps from Perdue? This is the second adult Ivory Gull seen in Massachusetts in the last couple of weeks, and perhaps the first adults to be seen in the Bay State in more than a hundred years?

It seems almost appropriate that we were watching and photographing this gull from the arctic on a day the temperature was near zero.

After leaving the gull, we birded a little around Plymouth harbor and Jenny’s Pond. We encountered an array of common winter waterfowl, and then headed up to Duxbury Beach. We went to Duxbury in hopes of locating a Snowy Owl, but today it was not to happen. We did have a Merlin, Horned Lark, Snow Buntings (Flyovers) and an Ipswich Sparrow.

Ivory Gull-Plymouth

Gadwall

Bufflehead

Duxbury Beach

Merlin

Ipswich Sparrow