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February 12, 1976 - Rare Gulls Swept In By Winter StormAn Official Newspaper of Southold Town and of the Incorporated Village of Greenport; Serving Shelter Island. Entered at the Post Office, Greenport, N.Y., as 2nd cl s ma or One Hundred and Eighteenth Year No. 30 Thursday, February 12, 1976 Subscription 510.00 a year, in advance. Single copies 25 "FOCUS ON NATURE AN IVORY GULL, an arctic bird seen only five times previously on Long Island, was sighted last weekend here, and photographed by Paul Stoutenburgh. Local bird watchers had ample time to photograph the small pure white bird Sunday and Monday. Not so fortunate were those ornothologists from the Museum of Natural History in New York who departed the city at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning for Southold to see the bird. Their wait was partly in vain, since when they finally located the gull at 2 p.m. Tuesday it had died. The gull's remains were taken to the Museum late Tuesday, where, according to Dr. John Bull of the Ornothology Department "It will be made into a specimen ". "An autopsy will be per- formed," Dr. Bull said, "although the bird evidently died of starvation. Its breast bone was prominent and quite thin," this ornothologist commented Wednesday morning, after, seeing the gull when it arrived at the Museum. photo by Paul Stoutenburgh Rare Gulls Swept In By Winter Storm by Paul Stoutenburgh Two days ago a good friend of mine, John Brush, had spotted a rare Glaucous Gull down at Founders Landing in Southold. My son, Peter, was anxious to see and photograph it, so the two of them took off on Saturday to locate it. After much searching and detective work, they wound up at the Southold Fishing Station. Here large quantities of gulls had gathered to gorge themselves on the remains of newly - opened scallops that the shop on the premises provides. Their good detective work paid off, for there among the hordes of screaming Herring Gulls was their "White Knight ". This occasional visitor from the far north has a reputation for being decidedly predatory in its home range. It reigns supreme over all lesser waterfowl and takes its toll of food from their eggs and young. It drifts south occasionally each winter as evidenced by two other sightings just this week over at Shinnecock. Night was falling when they finally caught up to the gull and with poor visibility and light the two had to return home. I was elated about the news. Perhaps tomorrow all three of us could try photographing. I had photographed most of our common gulls, but not this beautiful pure white gull from the north. Next morning we picked up John and headed for the Southold Fishing Station. It was Sunday morning, clear, bright and quiet - -a perfect day for photographing. We were cheerfully greeted by Mike and Mary Morris, owners of the station. After ex- plaining our mission, they remarked, "Yes, we know about it. See —it's right over there." The bird was resting on the sand spit right across the lagoon, but too far away for photographing. We needed something to lure it within camera range. "How about some scallops ?" Mike asked and off he went, bringing back a handful. These we broke and threw out on the ice. It did the trick. Gulls were all over. Cameras clicked and binoculars followed the beautiful white bird as it drifted above. We were excited as children finding their first egg on Easter morn. We oohed and aaaahed as we followed this occasional visitor from up north with our glasses. My, he was large and what authority he carried. No one fooled around with him and no one tried to hustle him off the dock post that he claimed. There was no question about it—he ruled here as well as in the north. The day was young and we wanted to do some more birding and photographing. Just as we were about to leave we spotted a small white bird over on the nearby beach. It was half the size of the big Glaucous Gull and it had black feet and legs. I'd never seen anything like it. We rushed to the car to get out our Peterson's Field Guide. Cold fingers fum- bled the pages. Gulls... gulls... here they are ... small..white gulI..black feet..yellowish bill. Could it be? An Ivory Gull! That would be impossible. Yet just this year one had set the birding world afire up in Massachusetts. People from all over came to see this bird. It became a tourist attraction there and here it was right in front of us. We double- checked and checked again. We couldn't make a mistake in identification, for that would be most embarrassing. Yes it was and it could only be that. A quick call now to all the pros, the experts: names like Gilbert Raynor, Aline Dove, Dennis Puleston, Art Cooley, Roy Wilcox, and a host of others. In no time they started to arrive and sure enough they confirmed our find. This pigeon- sized, pure white is seldom found south of the Arctic and is therefore much rarer than its companion, the Glaucous Gull. Names such as northern Baffin Land, northern Greenland, Prince Patrick Island, Melville Island, Daynley Bay, Franklin Bay and all unfrozen waters within this circumpolar region claim this bird. Of historic interest, to date there have been only five or six sightings ever recorded along our coast, and two of these were by Roy Latham of Orient. On February 21, 1934, he reported an adult Ivory Gull at Orient Point and on February 17, 1945, he picked up an immature dead Ivory Gull on the beach at Orient. This bird is in his fabulous collection. During the day we could photograph this bird within a few feet before it would fly off. The reason for this is that it seldom, if ever, is within sight of man. Man appears to be just another mammal, such as a seal, a whale, or a polar bear to this northern visitor, and therefore it paid little attention to our antics. A steady stream of interested people started to pour into the Southold Fishing Station. All came armed with binoculars and cameras. It was an exciting, beautiful day, with bright snow and sparkling ice. Then to top it off to have two rare gulls in our own backyard made it just perfect. Again, we see that Nature, sometimes harsh and sometimes cruel, still brings forth that unexpected delight when it's all over. We had paid our dues during the bad weather and we were now reaping our reward.