Bob Abrams and I found an adult Lesser Black-blacked Gull at the Loudoun County Landfill during the central Loudoun county CBC on Dec 28th. It was with approximately 750 Ring-billed Gulls and 32 Herring Gulls. Also of note were 400+ Fish Crows.
WV only has three accepted records of Lesser Black-backed Gull and this one is less than 20 miles from Jefferson county.
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Yesterday Jan. 6 around 3:15 pm there was a gull flying near the WV-340 bridge along the Shenandoah River here in Harpers Ferry. He flew over the bridge then came swinging back towards the ‘beach’ to give good closer looks and continued to make his way with long swoops side to side heading upriver (south). I memorized his yellow legs and yellow beak with what I could see as a red spot on the beak. At home in the guide book this directed me to Lesser Black-backed, but the bird seemed unlikely. Any chance this dude will stick around the area, or will he be heading south by the minute?
There’s always a chance but gulls move around quite a bit if the weather is not terrible.