First Record of the Ivory Gull in California

FIRST RECORD OF THE IVORY GULL IN CALIFORNIA

JOEL D. WEINTRAUB, Departmentof BiologicalScience, California State Univer- sity, Fullerton,California 92834 MIKE SAN MIGUEL, 2132 HighlandOaks Drive, Arcadia, California91006

On 5 January1996 at about0945 Weintraub,Carolyn Raynesford, Lucy Lee, andIrene Horiuchi found an immatureIvory Gull (Pagophila eburnea) on a gravellybeach at DohenyState Beach,Dana Point, OrangeCounty, California(33 ø 27' 33" N, 117ø 40' 31"W). Laterthe birdflew to the nearby mouthof SanJuan Creek where it wassubsequently seen by approximately 25 observersincluding San Miguel. It left the beach sometimebetween about 2230, when the last observersaw it with a flashlightand by a full moon, and 0400 the next morning,when it wasnext activelysearched for. The CaliforniaBird Records Committee (CBRC) reviewed numerous reports and photographstaken of the birdthat day and unanimouslyaccepted the sightingas the firstrecord of IvoryGull for California. Duringmost of the daylighthours the IvoryGull sat alone at the highsurf line.It appearedfatigued and allowed observers to getwithin a fewmeters. It oftensat with its belly on the wetsand with its head slowly drooping and eyes closed.A few timesthe bird stoodand dranksea water, and fluidwas seen drippingfrom the bill, presumably brine from its salt gland. When the birdwas standing,one of its wingsoften drooped, and a few timesoncoming waves knockedthe bird off its feet. As the afternoonprogressed, its condition appearedto deteriorate.According to one observerwho sawthe gullat about 2130, however,it wasvery active and was flying along the beach.

DESCRIPTION

The bird'slength as it stood,estimated from one photograph that showed a stick(later measured) in frontof and parallelto the gull,was about 38 cm. The gullwas quite distinctive in itsmostly white body, elongated wings, short legs,compact shape, and high round crown (Figure1). The smallbill was greenishgray with a pinkishyellow tip; the straightculmen was rounded at the tip. Blackmottling on the facewas most intense in the loresand on the chinand upperthroat. Fine whitecrescents were presentabove and below the dark eyes.Widely scattered black spots marked the crown and sidesof the neck,and the auricularshad distinctblack spots. The primarytips were black,narrowly edged with white at the extremetips. Nine primarieswere visiblebeyond the tertials,and four primarytips extendedbeyond the tail. The bordersof the black markswere sharplydefined distally but were somewhatragged basally, extending up the shaftson some feathers.The primarycoverts and rectrices were all similarlymarked, as were some of the upper tail coverts.Only sparseblack spotsmarked the lesserand median secondarycoverts, while the secondariesand greater secondarycoverts were all white.There weretwo blackspots on the tertials.Figure 2 showsthe birdin flightand the markingson its uppersurface. Other photographsof this bird can be foundin McCaskie(1996) and Weintraub(1996).

Western Birds 30:39-43, 1999 39 FIRST RECORD OF THE IVORY GULL IN CALIFORNIA

•' .• .•..•.- ,...... •- • ,:•.. •:--• :• ::...-. •.•:.•.: .:. : . ..- -:;, .-.

Figure 1. The Ivory Gull at Doheny State Beach. Dana Point. California. on 5 January 1996 Photo by Joel Weintraub

The underpartswere almostpure white except for one gray spot on the breastand a few blackspots near the tips of the outermostundertail coverts. On a few occasionsthe bird stretchedits wings. revealingpure white underwingsand coverts. White feathers extended down to the anklejoint; the jointwas flushed with reddish.The shortlegs and fully webbed feet were black.

STATUS AND DISTRIBUTION

One of the more unusualvagrants to have occurredin California,this immatureIvory Gull representsthe southernmostoccurrence of thisspecies, eclipsinga recordat Choshi.Honshu, Japan (at 35043 ' N) in 1981 (Brazil 1991). and the firstaccepted record for the Pacificcoast of North America southof Canada.The Ivory Gull breedsexclusively in the Arctic. It breedsin the CanadianArctic at Ellesmere.Seymore, Barfin. and Perleyislands, with a populationestimated at 2400 (Thomasand MacDonald1987). It alsobreeds in northernGreenland and Spitzbergen,and in Russiain SevernayaZemlya, NovayaZemlya. and FranzJosef Land (Haneyand MacDonald1995). From early Septemberto mid Octoberthe Ivory Gull migratessouth, winteringprimarily at the edgesof packice. on icebergsand drift ice (Cramp 1983, Haney and MacDonald1995). In the BeringSea it is commonfrom Octoberthrough June (Kesseland Gibson1978). It is a late-winterand early- springvisitor to Newfoundlandand Labrador. where several hundred have been seen.The IvoryGull also winters regularly south to the Gulfof St. Lawrenceand rarelystraggles to NovaScotia and New Brunswick(Harrison 1983).

4O FIRST RECORD OF THE IVORY GULL IN CALIFORNIA

Figure2 Ivory Gull in flightat Dana Point on 5 January1996. Photo by Joel Weintraub

In the contiguousUnited Statesrecords of the Ivory Gull are predomi- nantly from the northeast (Mlodinov and O'Brien 1996). From 1972 through 1994 there were 17 recordsfrom Maine, New Hampshire,Ver- mont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey:the specieshas been recordedalong the Atlantic coastas far south as Delawareand Virginia. Fourteenrecords from Minnesota,Iowa. Wiscon- sin, Illinois,Ohio. and Tennesseehave been acceptedsince 1972. Farther west, the Ivory Gull was recordedin Colorado in 1926 (Bailey 1926) and Montana in 1974 (Skaar 1980). Most far-southernrecords in North America are for late Novemberto earlyMarch, with the peakfrom late Decemberto mid-January.Most vagrantsare immatures. The Ivow Gullis a rarevagrant to southernand southeasternAlaska (Kessel and Gibson 1978); on the west coast of North America south of Alaska the

41 FIRST RECORD OF THE IVORY GULL IN CALIFORNIA onlyprevious accepted records of thisspecies are five from BritishColumbia, the earliestin 1889 and the most recent in 1988 (Campbellet al. 1990). There is stillno satisfactoryrecord for Washington.One reportedat Gray's Harbor on 20 December1975 (Crowelland Nehls 1976) wasnot acceptedby Washington'srecords committee. The carcassof an "absolutelywhite" bird foundat DestructionIsland, Jefferson Co., on 15 November1916 wasbadly decomposedand not preserved(Jewett et al. 1953). Recordsof vagrantIvory Gullsother than ourshave been associatedwith muchcolder temperatures, ice, and snow.We do not know what causedthe Ivory Gull to appear to be so lethargic or why its behavior changed dramaticallylater in the evening. Uspenskii(1969) and Orr and Parsons (1982) suggestedthis species is more active at nightduring the winter.Some of its daytimebehavior on the beachat Dana Point mightbe attributedto thermoregulatorydifficulties. The birdwas obviously experiencing higher air and seawatertemperatures (14 ø C for both at 0935 on 5 June;data from the Dana Point Harbor WeatherStation) than it wouldexperience in its normal winteringrange. We alsodo not know what route (from offshore,down the coast,or inland)the gulltook to get to Dana Point,but two weeksprior to its appearance, an intenselow-pressure area centeredin the Gulf of Alaska generated one of the strongeststorms along the west coast in the last decade,with hurricane-forcegusts approaching 191 km/hr (NOAA 1995).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thankthe manyobservers and photographerswho submittedtheir reportsand documentationto the CBRC. We alsothank the staffat DohenyState Beach and the general publicwho gave the gull a wide berth on the beach. We thank Kimball L. Garrettwho readan earlydraft of thispaper and Dan Gibsonwho providedvaluable commentsduring the review of our manuscript.

LITERATURE CITED

Bailey,A.M. 1926. The Ivory Gull in Colorado.Condor 28:182-183. Brazil,M. A. 1991. The Birdsof Japan.Smithsonian Inst. Press, Washington, D.C. Campbell,R. W., Dawe, N. K., McTaggart-Cowan,I., Cooper,J. M., Kaiser,G. W., and McNall, M. C. E. 1990. The Birdsof BritishColumbia, vol. II. RoyalBr. Columbia Mus.. Victoria. Cramp, S. (ed). 1983. Handbookof the Birdsof Europe,the MiddleEast and North Africa, vol. III. Oxford Univ. Press,Oxford, England. Crowell,J. B., and Nehls,H. B. 1976. NorthernPacific Coast region, winter 1975/ 1976. Am. Birds 30:758. Harrison,P. 1983. Seabirds:An IdentificationGuide. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Haney, J. C., and MacDonald,S. D. 1995. Ivory Gull (Pagophilaeburnea), in The Birds of North America (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.), no. 175. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia. Jewett, S. G.• Taylor• W. P., Shaw, W. T., and Aldrich, J. W. 1953. Birds of WashingtonState. Univ. of Wash. Press,Seattle. Kessel,B., and Gibson, D. D. 1978. Statusand distributionof Alaska birds.Studies Avian Biol. 1.

42 FIRST RECORD OF THE IVORY GULL IN CALIFORNIA

McCaskie, G. 1996. Southern Pacific Coast region, winter 1995/1996. Natl. Audubon Soc. Field Notes 50:220-226. Mlodinow, S., and O'Brien, M. 1996. America's Most Wanted Birds. Falcon Press, Helena, MT. NOAA. 1995. ClimateBull. 95/40, Dec. 22, 1995. U.S. Dept. Commerce,Natl. Oceanic& AtmosphericAdmin., Washington,D.C. Orr, C. D., andParsons, J. L. 1982. IvoryGulls Pagophila eburnea and ice-edgesin Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea. Can. Field-Nat. 96:323-328. Skaar, P. D. 1980. Montana Bird Distribution,2nd ed. P. D. Skaar, Bozeman, MT. Thomas,V. G., and MacDonald,S. D. 1987. The breedingdistribution and current populationstatus of the Ivory Gull in Canada.Arctic 40:211-218. Uspenskii,S. M. 1969. Life in High Latitudes:A Studyof Bird Life. Mysl' Publ., Moscow.Translated from Russianby AmerindPubl., New Delhi. Weintraub,J. 1996. CaliforniaIvory Gull!WildBird 10:2.

Accepted 6 August 1998