Bonaparte's Gull - vagrant

Larus philadelphia

Vagrant

The Bonaparte’s Gull breeds in W Alaska and across Canada, wintering along both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. A few are recorded annually in the UK.   

The first Bonaparte’s Gull recorded in Pembrokeshire was shot at Solva in the spring of 1888 and taken into the bird collection of H.W.Evans. Although some of this collection went to the Tenby Museum the Bonaparte’s Gull was not included and consequently it has not been possible to establish whether it was an adult or not.

The second record was of a first winter bird seen in flat calm conditions at Strumble Head on the 28th September 1997, dip feeding across the whirlpools of the inner tide race in the company of a Common Gull and a Black-headed Gull.                

Graham Rees