As of 09:30 this morning, the Ivory Gull still hasn’t been relocated. It has been almost 24 hours since it was last seen flying north after feeding at the Pinniped carcass in Grover Beach. Wes Fritz and others have been scouring the beach as far north as Morro Bay with no success. I will be continuing to update the Ivory Gull RBA page at http://kiwifoto.com/rba/ivgu.html as well as posting updates on Twitter and my blog.
I’ve received word that the Ivory Gull is still being seen this Sunday morning. Apparently there is not much meat left on the seal/pinniped carcass so chances are this may be the last day anyone sees the Ivory Gull before it moves on. Get out there and see it today folks!!
UPDATE: Brad Schram reports that Wes Fritz just told him that this morning the adult IVORY GULL is cycling back and forth between the original seal carcass on the beach at the end of Grand Avenue (Pismo Beach) and a second seal carcass beneath the Kon Tiki Hotel in north Pismo Beach, near the wooden steps down to the beach. A Google map request will pinpoint the Kon Tiki.
The new carcass is good news, maybe predicting a longer stay–the original carcass is past its sell-by date.
Arrived at Grover/Pismo Beach, CA just before sunrise this morning as birders began combing the beach in all directions and it didn’t take long for someone to locate the Ivory Gull just past 7:15AM. We all enjoyed great looks of the IVGU as it fed on the carcass of a pinniped that had washed up on the beach.
We could tell the bird was becoming increasingly agitated as more and more people showed up to walk their dogs along the beach. Eventually the bird flew off north toward the pier. No one was able to relocate the bird until it showed up again an hour later at the same feasting spot.
Again, it stayed in the same spot feeding until more and more people, including two people on horseback that were completely oblivious to the throng of birders, walked through the crowd toward the bird again scaring it up. We were able to relocate the Ivory Gull 10 minutes later at the Lagoon just north of the original location.
The Gull seems to be in good health and didn’t seem to mind the multitudes of birders with large lenses sneaking closer and closer to the bird. In fact, some of us were able to get within 15 feet of the bird!
You heard right. On November 4th, Mike Stensvold found and photographed an IVORY GULL. To give you an idea of the magnitude of such a claim:
The reason for the delay in letting everyone know? He wasn’t sure what the bird was. He’s a beginning birder that loves photographing them and had sent the photo’s off to more knowledgeable friends to help ID the bird. No one got back to him until today! That’s when I got ahold of the images and assured him it was an Ivory Gull and let everyone know about it. Poor guy, he feels terrible about not getting the word out sooner but he didn’t want to get chastised like the last time he thought he had a rare bird and was unsure of the ID!
More stunning photos from Mike:
I’ve also setup a website here documenting all correspondence and field observations of the IVORY GULL as results trickle in. Good luck to all those that go looking for the bird tomorrow and this weekend. I will be there bright and early tomorrow!