Glaucous-winged Gull in PA! ~ February 20, 2022

In the late afternoon of February 12th, Jason Hall found and photographed what appeared to be a very good candidate for a Glaucous-winged Gull at Green Lane Reservoir. This gull is normally found on the Pacific Coast. It flew off before anyone else got to see it. I spent the next afternoon along with several other birders hoping that it would return, but it never did.

On the morning of the 20th, Kevin Fox found and photographed a Glaucous-winged Gull on the docks at the Lake Nockamixon marina. There is very little doubt that this was the same bird that was at Green Lane the week before. Apparently, the word didn't get out to the text alerts until the afternoon. At around 2:30, Jason Horn refound the bird again at the marina. I headed out the door and got there around 3:15. Thankfully, the bird was still there resting on the dock. Most of the time, the bird was sleeping with its head tucked in, but there were two times while I was there when a Bald Eagle spooked all of the gulls, causing them to circle around and come back down to the docks. During those brief periods, I was able to get some photos of the bird with its head exposed.

Glaucous-winged Gull

Since I've only seen this bird during trips to the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, I don't have a lot of experience with it, but after looking over my photos, consulting guides, and checking many others' photos plus Jason Hall's from the 12th, this appears to be a second-winter Glaucous-winged Gull, which if accepted by PORC, would represent the first record for Pennsylvania and all of the mid-Atlantic states!

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