Black-tailed Gull at Waukegan Municipal Beach, IL (Mega Rarity)

A Black-tailed Gull was found Wednesday at Waukegan Municipal Beach, but not IDed until very early Thursday morning. Thankfully, it was relocated in the morning and stuck around the entire day, providing some excellent views to those who came. It was hanging out with a large group of Ring-billed and Herring Gulls. I was able to get down there in the late afternoon, after work. Just as I was driving down the beach road, I saw a Discord message come through saying it had just flown south. So, I parked, got my gear together and made my way out to a group of people on the beach. After a few minutes, I saw a gull land and thought I saw black on the tail. I said to everyone, “I think it just flew in behind us.” Sure enough, that was it! The next hour or so, it sat on the beach, sleeping, preening and moving around slightly. At one point, a parent let their child run through the flock of gulls, but they only moved a short distance and did not take flight, thankfully. Heat distortion was atrocious! I took just over 1600 photos in that short time, because I knew most would not turn out. I wanted to stay until sunset, but I had to get back home to take care of the puppy. I figured the cool air coming off the lake would ease the heat distortion later, plus the lighting would have been perfect. When I started looking at the photos later, I threw away the first 850 of them, which is exactly what I thought would happen. I did manage to get several decent ones and even a few in flight, that show the beautiful black band on the tail. I don’t usually get too excited for gulls, but as soon as I saw photos on the original eBird checklist of it, I thought the bill was so cool and knew I wanted to see it! Photos below are from Thursday afternoon. Enjoy!