Franklin's Gull at Rotary Park on 4/21/2012
This morning David Vander Pluym and I birded around Lake Havasu. We started at the north end viewpoint and were greeted by large rafts of Eared and Western Grebes. We counted 1560 Eared Grebes and 480 Western Grebes. Notably, there were 50 Bufflehead, 19 Common Loons, 17 Bonaparte’s Gulls, and 19 Forster’s Terns. A complete checklist of birds observed at the north end viewpoint can be seen at this link.
We headed to Rotary Park when we finished at the north end to check the beach for migrant gulls and shorebirds and the park area for migrant Passerines. A lone Semipalmated Plover was foraging with two Least Sandpipers on the beach. In the gull flock, we picked out two California Gulls and one Franklin Gull (photo above) in the flock of 80 Ring-billed Gulls. In the park area, we had a singing Yellow Warbler, one Orange-crowned Warbler, one Myrtle Warbler, and 10 Audubon’s Warblers. A complete checklist of birds observed at Rotary Park can be viewed here.