Mew Gull

This Mew Gull has been hanging around my blog queue since 10 February 2020, when Erika and I found this bird at the Nisqually national wildlife refuge east of Olympia. Its been awhile since we’ve seen a Mew Gull. Adults look a bit like delicate Ring-billed Gulls, but with smaller and relatively unmarked bills. They can be seen all year at Nisqually, but they are less often encountered in the summer. Their breeding range in North America extends from Alaska to Vancouver Island, and summer records of non-breeding birds here are not too surprising. They winter along the Pacific Coast of North America, less straying to locations further east. In fact, scattered records exist across North America. Mew Gulls in the Northeast, however, may have originated in Europe, where they also breed.