A VERY rare opportunity!

[squirl033]

There's been a swallow-tailed gull hanging out in this area for about a week, which has birders from all over the country all a-twitter. People have been coming to see it from as far away as Illinois and Florida. The reason? This gull is native to the Galapagos Islands, and has only seen twice before in North America! The previous two sightings were in California in the 1980s, so this was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. After just missing it for several days, I finally caught up with it this afternoon... it was roosting among some other gulls along the side of a pier, so the background is less than ideal, but it was only about 25 yards away, so I was able to get a good look at it. Wasn't doing much - just dozing and occasionally moving around - but I was able to get some decent shots to commemorate this extremely rare visit. Here's one of the better images...

 

[ZombiesniperJr]

Great shot and it also in nocturnal

 

[weepete]

Sweet! always nice to see something rare!

 

[tirediron]

Looks like they started the build with a standard Glaucous Gull chassis, but finished off from the spares bin.

 

[zombiesniper]

Congrats on a great capture.

 

[Derrel]

Nice shot of a super-rare North American bird sighting!

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

It is very exciting to see a rarity. Nicely done.

 

[squirl033]

Thanks, guys! There've been people coming here from all over the country to see this little fella... he's become quite a celebrity!

 

[Gary A.]

All of the excitement is so cool and better yet you've captured it!

 

[baturn]

Great catch of such a rare sighting.

 

[squirl033]

Thanks! Yeah, it's exciting to see something so rare, and getting photos of it is even better! The "birders" with their scopes and checklists will be all abuzz telling their friends they saw it... I'll show my friends photos!

 

[HavToNo]

Very nice shot of this rare fellow. Always exciting to capture something new.