This time it was a Black-headed Gull sitting on the beach in the middle of a ramping up Memorial Day frenzy at Wrightsville Beach. I knew the parking was going to be an issue, so I threw my wife's beach cruiser in the back of my truck and drove down to the playing fields a t WB. I jumped onto the bike and pedaled faster than most of the cars were moving and made it to Shell Island 20 minutes after the initial phone call. As expected there was zero parking and a bunch of idiots waiting for spots. Little did they know that once someone gets a spot on Memorial Day weekend they never leave. I stashed the bike behind a red cedar and surveyed my options. The tide was low enough that I could take the short cut into the marsh instead of walking all the way down through the throngs on the beach, so off I went.
Once out to the end of the spit which sticks out into the channel, I nearly lost it. There was people everywhere, dogs running around, boats pulling up right and left. I could only see a few Laughing Gulls. I called Sam and while I was stammering about not seeing any Black-headed Gull, blammo!
Looks like a first cycle Black-headed Gull.
He began to feed like a much less eloquent version of a Bonaparte's gull and the Laughing Gulls were harassing him for the small tidbits he was getting.
Black-headed on bottom and Laughing above.
Yes even Europeans have to poop.
The Whimbrels and Willets, not to mention the average beach goers were not impressed. Probably they were more interested in the weird birder in his underwear wading across channels of water to get close to this gull.
The hood was gray and although the outline was full it was patchy. But the bird was significantly smaller than the Laughing gulls and although there was no Bonaparte's for comparison, this bird was obviously bigger.
His right leg was a bit gimp. But obviously his wings were in fine shape for him to skip across the pond (Atlantic).
Its not every day you see one of these bad boys in NC.
Cheers.
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