Mega News - A Franklin's Gull near Eilat - 3-4 June 2003.

Yesterday morning I was lucky enough to find a Franklin's Gull (Larus pipixcan) at K20 salt pools. It was adult in full summer plumage, and as such, fairly easy to pick out from the hundreds of Slender-billed Gulls feeding there. I identified it immediately, having seen hundreds of Franklin's Gulls in North America and Mexico.

An absolute cracker, it was present throughout the day allowing nine other lucky birders to see it, including Nir Sapir and Yoav Perlman of the IRDC.

This a new bird for Israel and the first Nearctic Gull of any kind to be recorded in the country. At this time of year it would have been more at home on an inland lake somewhere in Colorado! What an extra-ordinary record for Southern Israel!!

Click the pictures to enlarge (+)

4th June - This morning the bird was still present in the same area giving very good views.

I would like to offer sincere and warm thanks to all of you that passed on congratulations for this find. It was very special day, and I'm more than happy to have these images online to share with our readers.

Special thanks to Ruti Motro for her invaluable help in downloading the images that you are about to see.

Enjoy!!

Happy Birding,

James Smith and the Birdingisarel Team