BRDL 20

2/11/22 - SAGU - Sabine's Gull

I've never really heard of this bird before. Which is why looking up birds in your guide when you're playing BRDL is alright by me. Probably haven't really heard of Sabine's gull since they breed in the Arctic and are mostly seen at sea if they're in the US, and then, it's usually on the west coast. They are pretty striking with black head and yellow tipped bills and red eyes, as well as a forked tail, which is pretty rare for gulls. Joseph Sabine was a naturalist on Captain John Ross's arctic exploration in the early 19th century which is where the name comes from (not that I know much about either of them). What the name really reminds me of, though, is a book from the early 1990's called Griffin and Sabine. I recall the book being quite novel (no pun intended) since the text was all correspondence between the two title characters, and you could actually take the letters out of the envelopes in the book to read them. Clearly no relation between the Sabines, and pretty sure that the Sabine of the book never saw one of these gulls, as she was living on a tropical island. These gulls never get that far into the Pacific.

By Ómar Runólfsson - Sabine´s Gull - Larus sabini - ÞernumáfurUploaded by Snowmanradio, CC BY 2.0, 

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