A couple weeks ago a very rare for New England Franklin's Gull was at Misquamicut Beach parking lot. I was working the day it was seen so I couldn't go see it. I did have the following day off from work and went for it. It wasn't there but I did get a photo upgrade of a Bonaparte's Gull. These little gulls are dainty almost tern like. Usually when I see them they are young or not in breeding plumage. Adult breeders have black heads. When they are not breeding most of the head is white with a black smudge on the ear.
I've gotten fairly close to many of the non-breeders before and gotten lucky with photos. However, I never had great views of an adult. When I went to Westerly there were quite a few adults mixed in a flock with three other species. Some of them were right on the parking lot very close to my car. I didn't have to walk to them. I could use my car as a blind, since gulls at a beach parking lot are extremely used to cars, and was only a couple parking spaces away when I was shooting them with my camera.
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| Adult Bonaparte with three non-breeding Bonaparte's Gulls |
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