On Saturday, 6 February 1999, I decided to bird West Point Dam, located on the Georgia-Alabama border north of the town of West Point, GA.  As soon as I arrived at the dam shortly after sunrise, I noticed a very large, mostly white gull loafing with several Ring-billed and a Herring Gulls on the west side of the boom in front of the dam. The bird dwarfed the Ring-bills, and was noticeably larger than the Herring Gulls.

Basically, it was a large white gull (it looked entirely white from a distance) with scattered light brown/beige markings on the breast, belly, and flanks, and similar markings on the head. The mantle appeared white, and the primaries just as white. The primary tips extended slightly beyond the tail.

The long, heavy bill was mostly pink with a neatly defined black tip (black from the gonys forward). The tail was white, but I never got a good look at it to see if it had any markings. The legs were pink.

The gull spent most of the time preening, and was still on the boom when I left at 09:15.

This was the second occurrence of this species at West Point Dam in early 1999.  The first was an adult, reported in mid January by Doug Robinson of Auburn, AL.

The Annotated Checklist of Georgia Birds (1986) lists this species as "accidental in the Savannah-Tybee Island region", with records in Feb. 1931, Apr. 1931, May 1951, and Jan. 1962.  There is also an offshore record from Feb. 1983.  There have been a couple of inland sightings of this species since the publication of the Annotated Checklist of Georgia Birds in 1986.

Because of the distance of the bird, these photos were taken by holding a 35mm SLR camera to the ocular of a spotting scope.  The top photo was taken from one of the parking lots adjacent to the dam in the Eagleview Park section of the West Point Dam recreation area, shortly after the bird was first observed.  The remaining photos were taken from the top of the dam itself.

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