Scanning the gulls at the beach is always a good idea; you just never know what might be sitting in the flock. I'm not a larophile, or lover of gulls, to be sure - but I do enjoy trying to pick out something other than our usual Ring-billed, Herring, and Great Black-backed Gulls. Today, I was pleased to see a "new face" in the crowd, a Lesser Black-backed Gull.
Not all that long ago, Lesser Black-backed Gulls were quite rare in Western New York. This species of gull hails from Eurasia and it's only been in the last twenty years or so that they have become regular sightings in our area. Usually, we find them in the winter months, but for a few years now, I've found them as early as mid-to-late August.
The Lesser Black-backed Gull is a smaller gull than a Herring Gull and larger than a Ring-billed Gull. Two of the photos below show the size differences. This was a first summer bird, meaning it's a youngster and this is its first summer. I think it may be a post breeding dispersal bird, on its first journey away from home and somehow, he or she found its way to the southern shore of Lake Erie. I looked for it again a couple of days later, but I didn't find it. I guess it was a one or two day visit.