18 THEA UD USBrO INGE. Lak sn 
State Museum, in Washington Park, Springfield. Four other Audubons saw 
it the following day, and a group drove in from Chicago specifically to 
observe the bird. Peterson lists the Ash-throat as an “accidental” in this 
area, says it’s a bird of Florida and Louisiana. Bohlen also found the Red 
Phalarope, south of Jacksonville. An immature specimen, it was seen and 
corroborated later by Vern Kleen, Department of Conservation non-game 
biologists, Mrs. W. D. Vasse of Brussels and other recognized Audubons. 
Kleen says it is the third recording of a Red Phalarope in Illinois in recent 
years, The bird is a pellagic species; Peterson says it breeds in the Arctic, 
migrates along the Atlantic coast well offshore and winters in the south 
Atlantic. Kleen says it is a bird of the Pacific Ocean areas also, where it 
is also rarely found inland. Undoubtedly a migration mixup brought the 
bird to Illinois — at least 800 miles from any ocean water habitat. 
ft rs A FI 
The First Black-headed Gull for Illinois 
by H. DAVID BOHLEN AND VERNON M. KLEEN 
On February 10, 1973, the two of us were observing ducks and gulls at 
Chautauqua Lake and Quiver Lake along the Illinois River in Mason 
County, just north of Havana. We had just observed an adult Glaucous 
Gull in with a large group of Herring Gulls at Chautauqua Lake before 
arriving at Quiver Lake at 10 a.m. 
We stopped at a point along the road which offered a good view of 
Quiver Lake and several gulls. That particular location in the lake, directly 
below us, was the dividing line between the open water and the ice. Just 
after we had arrived at this location, we were unexpectedly joined by a 
group of birders from the Morgan County Audubon Society. We were happy 
that they were able to share the following observation with us. 
The gulls were sitting both in the water and on the ice, so Vern 
mounted his 32 x spotting scope on the car window and began scanning 
them. Suddenly he found one gull which was smaller than the others, and 
it immediately reminded him of a Bonaparte’s Gull. Dave, knowing that 
this species is unexpected here during the winter quickly looked through 
the scope and noticed that the gull had a red bill—something which Bona- 
parte’s Gulls are not known to have. 
The bird, at least 300 yards away, was fluttering in the water as if 
taking a bath. Later it swam to the ice, walked on the ice, sat on the ice, 
again walked on the ice, and finally flew. It flew past us several times, once 
within 50 yards. 
After observing the bird until it disappeared, we took the following 
notes without references to the books and made the accompanying draw- 
ings (traced from our original field notes): 
Dave Bohlen: “Bill: red with a black tip. Legs and feet: red. Head: 
white, dark spot behind eye, dark smear from eye to eye over the crown. 
Tail. white with black terminal band. Wing: Brown mottled stripe down 
middle of secondaries. White window in primaries with black on tip (see 
drawing); underwing: sooty on primaries. Also, the bill ‘appeared’ longer 
than ordinary Bonaparte’s. After seeing books, I remembered seeing the 
