First sighting of rare Bonaparte's gull in Guernsey

The sighting of a Bonaparte's Gull on the island has been described as an "incredible find"

A North American species of gull rarely seen in the UK has been spotted in Guernsey for the first time.

Mark Lawlor, the island's bird recorder, was with his daughter at L'Eree Shingle Bank when he saw the Bonaparte's gull.

The bird is thought to have crossed the Atlantic after getting caught in a weather front.

An ornithologist at the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), said it was "an incredible find for the lucky finder".

Mr Lawlor said he saw the gull at about midday on Monday.

"I stopped for a quick scan with my binoculars to see if anything unusual had arrived on the island in the cold weather," he said.

Mr Lawlor, whose job as a bird recorder for the Société Guernesiaise includes collating and verifying bird sightings, said he saw the small gull on the shoreline and "had a feeling" it looked slightly different to a common black-headed gull.

Mark Lawlor spotted the bird while out with his daughter on Monday

He added: "I noticed pale pink legs and it flapped its wing to reveal a pale underwing, which are all features of Bonaparte's gull.

"As recorder I know which species have and haven't been seen before on the island so I knew this was something new.

"Of course finding a new species for the island was pretty exciting for me."

Paul Stancliffe, from BTO, said the Bonaparte's gull was an "annual rare visitor" to the UK with a handful of sightings recorded each year.

"Right now the Guernsey bird is the only Bonaparte's gull in the UK and is indeed the first for the island," he said.

"Bonaparte's gulls breed in northern North America and winter in southern North America, as far south as Mexico - this bird will have got caught up in a weather front that tracked across the Atlantic as it was making its journey south."

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