23/07/2016 Bonaparte's Gull at Oare Marshes

Saturday 23 July 2016
Oare Marshes, Kent

Spent a lovely afternoon with Sara at Oare Marshes where we twitched the bonaparte's gull.  Apparently this is the fourth year in succession that this species has been seen here.




Addition to BUBO 2016 UK Year List:
Bonaparte's Gull (228)  

• The species is named after Charles Lucien Bonaparte, a French ornithologist (and nephew to the former French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte) who spent eight years in America, contributing to the understanding of the taxonomy and nomenclature of birds there and elsewhere.

• Bonaparte's gull breeds in boreal forest across southern Alaska and much of interior western Canada. It winters along the coasts of North America, and in the Great Lakes. It is a rare vagrant to western Europe and the Azores, where it generally associates with black-headed gulls.