Saturday Evan Farese found an immature Sabine's Gull at the Fred Stone County Park in Port Mansfield. I've seen a few through the years with my lifers being a flock of seven on the Western Field Ornithologist pelagic trip out of San Diego back in September of 1981. What a fun trip from Las Cruces, NM with the then young Zimmer brothers, Kevin and Barry. We also nabbed a fantastic South Polar Skua and a montrous Blue Whale. Since then I've seen a Sabine's Gull in Arizona and a couple in Texas.
I needed this one for a Willacy County bird, but I didn't want to do the 90 mile drive and deal with the usual weekend crowd at the fishing pier. However it was seen again on Sunday afternoon so I got up early and made the drive Monday morning. It took an hour and a half for the Sabine's Gull to show but clouds made for not so great photos. I ran over to Laguna Point for a bit where not much was happening and then returned to the fishing pier where light conditions had improved. What a striking gull!
At one point I was tracking the gull through the camera when it just disappeared. Did it land? I ran off the pier and sure enough there was the Sabine's Gull sitting on a rock preening.
I had the #1 life list for Willacy County for many years. At that time it took little effort. But since then Evan Farese and Ron Weeks have turned up the heat and surpassed 300. This was my 296th species for Willacy County with some still not too hard ones to get.
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