ABA Rare – Black-tailed Gull – California

Another day, another ridiculously rare gull for California. On Friday, January 13, Bill Hill discovered an ABA Code 4 Black-tailed Gull near the John Denver Memorial, just east of Point Pinos in Monterey, California.

John Denver Beach is just east of the Point Pinos Lighthouse off Ocean View Blvd in the town of Monterey. The nearest large airport is San Jose, about 1.5 hours to the north. Of note is a Ross’s Gull, California’s 2nd, that has been present for the last couple days in Half Moon Bay, about 2 hours up the coast from Monterey.

Black-tailed Gull is an east Asian species prone to vagrancy. Unsurprisingly, most records come from Alaska but it’s also been found in a number of states and provinces throughout the US and Canada. In just the past several years, it’s been seen in Newfoundland, California, and Washington state. In the center of the continent, records come from Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Ontario, and Manitoba.

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