An Ivory Gull Run

On January 10, Carrie and I, accompanied by Joe Phipps, made our run to Quincy, IL to see the rare Ivory Gull, which had been seen in the area for eight days. We had all the makings of a great day together, except the Ivory Gull was not found, despite the 200+ birders that showed up to look for it. We searched all morning for the gull and then had a warm lunch at the Quincy Pizza Hut. It was cold inside the restaurant as were our hearts with disappointment. By this time we realized we would not likely see the bird, but we rallied and decided to keep searching in the afternoon to and see what else we could find in the area.

There were several species of sparrows at the Detwiler Marina where the Ivory Gull had been seen the previous day, including Eurasian Tree Sparrows, Song Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, and Fox Sparrows. Here are a couple of the Fox Sparrows we saw.



After a little more searching for the Ivory Gull, we spent a little bit of time on the Missouri side of the river looking for a Northern Shrike that was reported in the area. Although we did not locate the shrike, we did find 30 Trumpeter Swans.



We returned to the Lock & Dam in Quincy, where we watched a male Belted Kingfisher beat to death a fish he had caught and then swallow it whole.









Then we ran into Brendon Lake and Mary, his mother, who had found a pair of American White Pelicans.





As we were leaving the Lock & Dam area, a couple of Bald Eagles landed in a tree right beside our car for a photo shoot. What a great way to finish our day followed by a long ride home listening to classic rock.





Written and published on January 19, 2015