John,

I was skeptical too, but everything made sense today when I met with the
birder who took the images. He was able to show us images on his camera,
including the ones posted to eBird and additional photos of the bird in
flight as it left the beach to the north. After last night's storm, it's
not a surprise that the bird did not return.

I also reverse image searched the eBird photos and had no hits.

He explained that he's a photographer first, so it took him some time to
identify the bird and then additional time to figure out how to post to
eBird, since full-resolution photos are often too large for upload.

It's a remarkable find, and a real blessing for a birder who was in the
right place at the right time! It reminds me of the only Ohio record of a
Crested Caracara... He's going to file a report with the Ohio BRC. In the
meantime, we can all hope the bird comes back!

Good birding,
James Muller

On Fri, Dec 30, 2016, 9:34 PM John Herman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> There exists the possibility that the "ivory gull" reported at Alum Creek
> reservoir is not legit. Photo.s from ebird or some where else of an ivory
> gull not at Ohio could have been inserted into the ebird report. It's
> happened before. Someone I spoke with stated that he could not confirm any
> background features in the photographs. Also the photo.s were very
> close-up, which I'm told wouldn't be all that easy at Alum Creek beach.
> A red flag should have gone up when the "ivory gull" was reported at Alum
> Creek reservoir about 11 a.m. and the white-winged scoter was reported at
> about 3:30 p.m. No "ivory gull" on the scoter ebird list of 3:30 on 29
> December. Of course, if the gull was there, it could have flown to the
> middle area of the reservoir.
> The reporter of the "ivory gull" seems to be a mystery with no one I've
> talked to familiar with him.
> Ebird should be able to reverse engineer the information from the "ivory
> gull" ebird checklist and determine the name, email, etc. of the person
> reporting the gull.
> However, with birds almost anything is possible. Bramblings, curlew
> sandpipers and the Black-tailed gull are seen and well documented.
> I think when the OBRC reviews this "documentation" the legitimacy of the
> record should be considered.
> Good birding,
> John Herman
>
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