Iceland Gull

This will be a little longer than my usual posts, so I hope you will bear with me.

The day of the brown booby there was a little drama. (Lord, I hope people aren't landing on my blog because they searched for other kinds of boobies). I vote we rename all booby birds.

Once I saw that I wasn't going to get any good looks at the booby (good grief!), much less any shots, I moved on to other subjects in another part of the Tchefuncte river. A very well dressed, middle-aged man, came up to ask us about the booby, so we pointed the way and wished him luck.

As soon as the man got to the target area, a Madisonville police car made a beeline for him, sounding the siren in short blasts to get his attention. I watched from a distance as the cop hassled him for several minutes, even taking his license back to the squad car to call it in. For goodness' sake, the man was well-dressed and obviously a birder with a nice pair of binoculars. He drove a frickin' Escalade! Finally, he was let go and drove away. The look on his face as he drove off was one of anger. And I can't say I blame him. I felt awful, as though I were somehow responsible.

Later that afternoon, as we pulled into Mandeville Harbor's Yacht Club to look for the Iceland gull, Mr. Escalade pulled into the parking spot next to us, so we exited our vehicles to talk. He said the cop almost arrested him! I apologized, telling him that we had been photographing and birding that area for months without a problem. Yes, there is a lot of construction going on, but there are NO signs posted to keep people out. Apparently, the cop told him he was trespassing. Well, Mr. Escalade knew some people in high places and was going to report the cop. Hee hee.

After all that, Mr. Escalade was kind enough to drive us to the exact location of the Iceland gull. We never would have found it on our own. Birders are awesome folks. The end.

There has been much debate on the birding list I subscribe to whether this is a Kumlien's or Iceland gull.
I think they finally settled on generic Iceland gull.

He stayed close to this Herring gull the entire time we were there. When the herring flew off, he flew off, too.
I guess they're buddies. Awwww!!

Doesn't he have a sweet face?

It's nice to be important, but more important to be nice.
Author unknown

Linking with Eileen's Saturday's Critters.