Today I accompanied Arden and Sherry Hagen and George Mayfield in a successful search for the LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL found on Friday at John Day Dam by Cathy Flick and Stuart Johnston. My three compatriots had searched yesterday without any luck. On this very windy morning when we arrived Arden decided to first check the area below the dam on the Oregon side. We walked out from the furthest upriver restroom to the riverbank where there was a small flock of RING-BILLED GULLS, CALIFORNIA GULLS, one HERRING GULL and a GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL. When the GW Gull moved it revealed a juvenile HEERMAN'S GULL, my first in the Columbia Gorge. When the gulls flew offshore I spotted a darker gull in the flock on the river which was the bird of our quest. We had an opportunity to put a couple of scopes on the bird and had great views of it before it lifted off. We watched it as it flew back and forth along the face of the dam before disappearing. We checked upstream of the dam but most of the river was in whitecaps and the only spot where we could scan the gulls was from the Westbound Rest Area of the wind protected area just above the dam. While we were looking through the hundreds of gulls Bob Hansen and Stuart Johnston drove up to help search. We were unable to re-find it here or below the dam but most of the flock was not visible do to the waves. Sherry did get videos of the bird in flight and used GOOGLE Maps to deduce that it had crossed the state line giving me my 400th Washington life bird.

Wilson Cady
Washougal, WA


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