Glaucous-winged Gull

What. A. Beast.

That was my reaction to seeing only the 5th ever recorded Glaucous-winged Gull in the Western Palearctic region. This large, stocky gull is an extremely rare vagrant from north-west North America, breeding across Alaska and Washington State and wintering along the west coast of the US as far south as California. The individual in the photographs below was first seen by a lucky few in Århus, Jylland (western Denmark), on 27 November for just a few minutes and then not again until 21 December - again by just a handful of observers and for a very brief period. Despite much searching by local birders, it was not relocated. Both of the original sightings were at Århus harbour, a major port with an estimated 20,000 gulls in the area in winter. Almost two months passed before the next sighting, on 14 February, at a freshwater lake called Braband Sø, just west of Århus city. Again, the bird did not stay long and disappeared after around an hour. Frustrating. But this new sighting offered hope to those wanting to see this now mythical bird. A few optimistic individuals turned up the following day, 15 Feb, to see if it would put in another appearance at the same site. After several hours waiting in the freezing cold, at 1129 it suddenly flew in and landed among the 100 or so other gulls, Coots, Moorhens and Mallards that have congregated in this area. Just reward for the seven birders, including a German twitcher from Bremen, who had made the effort. The bird stayed onsite until 1245 at which time it flew off east (towards the harbour), again causing much frustration for the tens of birders that were travelling to the site after the news of its reappearance.

Needless to say, after sightings on two consecutive days at the same site and around the same time, many more birders turned up on Tuesday 16th, including me! I arrived on site at around 0915 and already there were 30 or so birders present. This number swelled to at least 80 by 1130 (around the time the bird was seen on the previous two days) but, of course, the bird didn't realise it had a script to follow and, by 1400, it still hadn't shown up. People began to drift away and, despite sightings of Bittern (2), Smew (2), a White-tailed Eagle and Short-toed Treecreeper, spirits visibly sank, especially as it was below freezing. I amused myself by searching through the Common and Black-headed Gulls for colour rings and there were 4 with various combinations of rings, including two Common Gulls from Estonia. After exhausting the colour rings, I thought I'd check some other local sites, mostly to get my blood moving again. I checked a small unfrozen patch of water at the other end of the lake (4kms away) and, despite there being a much larger congregation of gulls here (at least 300), there was no sign of the "monster". Then, after spending a few more minutes back at the original site, I decided to try the harbour - at least I stood a chance of finding the resident Mediterranean Gull (a potential new Danish bird for me) among the thousands of gulls assembled on the ice in the harbour. I swapped mobile numbers with a Danish guy - Henrik - in case either of us heard any news.

No sooner as I had arrived at Århus harbour and began checking the first group of gulls, I received a text message from Henrik - the bird had been found - not at the original site but a couple of kilometres away along the river that flows out of the lake. I grabbed my bike and began the 20-minute return journey. About half way there my phone beeped and, again, it was Henrik. The bird had flown off! My heart sank. But I continued back to the original site to find out the latest. According to a group of Danish birders it was seen by just two birders, one of whom was unsure of the identification and wanted to see the wing pattern. He flushed the bird and it flew up, confirming the identification but also causing it to fly off! Needless to say, this guy was not popular with the masses waiting at the original site! Nevertheless, most of the people had decamped to the site of this fresh sighting in the hope that it might return. Henrik and I decided to go back to the original site given that the observer thought it "might" have flown in that direction.

We arrived there at around 1500 and, immediately a shout went up of "Der er det!" (there it is!). Unbelieveably, the Glaucous-winged Gull was circling low overhead and, after a couple of passes, landed on the ice some 100 metres away. Wow! It was a beast. A very stocky gull with relatively short legs and a short primary projection, giving it a "stubby" appearance. It sported a very marked 'hood' of dark streaks and blotches which reached some way down the breast and, on the upperside, merged onto the mantle. The wing-tips were a light grey with white 'mirrors' on the outer edges of the primaries and the bill a dull yellow with black markings and a weak reddish 'gonys spot'. One Dane remarked that it reminded him of a Great Skua and I can see the resemblance - it was 'front-heavy' with a deep bulging breast.

Birders immediately began to throw bread, trying to tempt it to stay and even come closer. It proceeded to perform very well over the next hour, walking around the ice, throwing its weight around a bit and occasionally flying around. Despite its large size it was not particularly aggressive and, in fact, most of the time it seemed to be looking around in all directions wondering what was happening not realising that it could scare the living daylights out of the other gulls and eat as much food as it liked if it wanted to...

Over the next half an hour or so, more birders arrived, running from the site where it was seen earlier and, with joy on their faces, they set up their telescopes to take a closer look while their lungs recovered. I would estimate that, in that hour, around 60-70 birders were present at one time or another.

True to form, after an hour or so, the bird suddenly flew up, circled, and headed east... And that was that.

I left at 1600 to catch my train home having had a thoroughly enjoyable day - it's not often I go on a 'twitch' but I have to say that this was a fantastic experience with the late drama making it all the more rewarding.

For anyone interested in going to see the Glaucous-winged Gull, check out this map which highlights the most productive sites and parking places.

UPDATE: The Glaucous-winged Gull was seen today (Wednesday) at the same place; and already I have received information about two of the colour-ringed Common Gulls. Both were ringed in Estonia with one ringed as a breeding adult male in 1991, making it at least 21 years old... but it still has some way to go to beat any records - the oldest Common Gull in Europe was ringed as a chick in Denmark and reached the ripe old age of 33 years and 6 months!

Photos: Glaucous-winged Gull (4th winter); and a couple of photos of the "twitch"