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Posted by John Boyd on 12:37:40 10/23/05
Bryant Roberts, Mark Berney, and I saw at least 5 Franklin's Gulls today in the construction area where they were seen yesterday. 4 were adult/second winter, 1 was first-winter. I found this hard to believe and spent some time scoping them to make sure. Not all of the gulls were present, so there may be even more around! This is quite surprising to me as I have scanned many Laughing Gulls in S Florida before, finding no Franklin's. We speculated that they may have been moved from their normal wintering grounds by Katrina or Rita.
Bryant also saw the Black-headed Gull this morning, shortly before Mark and I arrived. (Paul, Juan, and I saw it yesterday afternoon.)
I did a count yesterday of LBB gulls, finding 20 of them. The flock subsquently grew, so there are probably more. Just a few years ago, this would have been considered a fantastic number anywhere in the US.
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