Ivory Gull in Georgia!!!!!

Can you believe it? Remember this is their normal range (check map). http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ivory_Gull/id

Here are some photos from different folks that went to see him.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27397197@N06/4311044612/

http://bigfatbirder.blogspot.com/2010/01/ivory-gull.html

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?p=433331

Hmmm, maybe one will visit Lake Erie sometime, they seem to be showing up here and there. It sure does get everyone's attention that's for sure. Glad you got your shot's Pelle!

Wow, that gull was found way down south in Georgia?! What a beautiful gull it is too!

Another blogspot I found regarding where else these birds have been spotted in the NE: http://shorebirder.blogspot.com/2010/01/ivory-gull-situation.html

With the environmental and weather changes going on, it makes me wonder what we will see (or not) in the next few years!

Thanks for sharing this pelletory!

Your very welcome. I'm so glad I got to see the one in Cape May. This Georgia one is a real surprise.

And a pure white full adult, too!

Out-of-range Ivory Gulls are normally first-winter birds, with black spots.

Resin

HOLY SMOKES!!!!! I gotta sign up for that Rare Bird Alert.....

I'm sorry to report the Ivory Gull in Georgia is dead. Snif,snif...

They say how that came about Pelle?

Hi Burd, It was attacked by a predator and did not survive the injury.

Bummer.

Yep definitely. I was wondering what the predator was but haven't read anything.

Well, hopefully natural and not domestic.

Likely wouldn't be familiar with temperate raptors or predatory mammals, so wouldn't have any fear of them.

I've also heard that Ivory Gulls (and other arctic birds like Snowy Owls) that go a long way south have very high mortality rates from disease, because they again have no resistance to bugs that don't occur in the arctic.

Resin