Sabine's Gulls in Mason County, IL

On Friday, September 23, 2016, Greg Neise posted on the Illinois Rare Bird Alerts page on Facebook that Kevin Richmond was watching three Sabine's Gulls from the Roundtree Trail at Chataqua NWR. Two Sabine's had been at Chataqua all week long and had been, and there had been reported sightings of them from the beer can spot. After work, I picked up Joe Phipps at his apartment, and we drove to Chataqua to see the Sabine's Gulls. We started at the beer can spot, where Joe found one, but the light was terrible so we drove to the Roundtree Trail where we could see the gulls feeding in flight on the other side of the lake. We were both able to see at least two separate Sabine's Gulls feeding in flight through our scopes. Sabine's Gull was a lifer for both of us, and Illinois #325 for me.