5 Species of Gulls at Blue Marsh Lake, Berks County

Glaucous Gull (center) & Iceland Gull (upper right) - Click to enlarge

     After leading a joint bird walk for the Friends of Glen Providence Park and the BCDC this morning I came home and picked up Sharon and we headed up to Blue Marsh Lake in Berks County. When we arrived at the Dry Brooks Day Use Area we could see a large number of gulls resting on the beach. Sharon and I walked down to the bath houses to get closer to the beach and started scanning the gulls. After several scans we only found Lesser Black-backed, Herring and Ring-billed Gulls. At this point Carl Juris and his wife arrived to help out. After another five minutes we still found nothing new. Joan Silagy then arrived on the scene and informed us that the Glaucous Gull was seen this morning. Good News! We started scanning again and then Joan yelled out that she had the Glaucous Gull and we all managed to get the gull in our scopes. A handsome, immature, all white gull, with the exception of the bill tip, which was black. As I was watching the Glaucous Gull an Iceland Gull floated into view. How cool was that? Awesome.

     For info about Blue Marsh go to http://www.nap.usace.army.mil/sb/bm_guide.htm.

Glaucous Gull ( Note larger size than Herring Gull)