I don't use it all that often, but I checked on reports of Sabine's gull
in the US (you can search in the ABA's Birding News for species and
other things in titles) over the past 48 hours and found reports of
Sabine's gulls in the following places: Wisconsin, Nebraska, Missouri,
Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, Arizona, Massachusetts,
California, Kansas, Montana, and of course Ohio.
        This is an Arctic bird we see only irregularly in migrations, and the
pattern seems to be that a few of them, on their way from the high
Arctic (n. Canada & Russia, Greenland) to winter at sea even into the
southern hemisphere, move overland through the eastern US. Olsen &
Larsson calls it "distinctive but mainly observed in hard onshore
winds." It seems that birds--often juveniles--that move overland insist
upon stops at lakes along the way. I don't know if the numbers of this
remote nester are higher than normal this year, or only if more birders
are recognizing and reporting them, but they are pretty distinctive.
Worth keeping an eye out...
Bill Whan
Cols

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