Montrose Dunes & Beach Friday 7-18-25

[Al Stokie]

Hello Bird People,

After 4 days in a row going to Techny North I was ready for a change
so I went to Montrose today.
A Franklin's Gull was seen here yesterday & 4 birders had photos of it
on ebird. But I scanned the public beach for over an hour while
looking for shorebirds but found no Franklin's Gull. There were 2
adult Piping Plovers (Pipin & Imani) & all 3 young ones seem to be
doing well looking plump. And I saw the red star one (El I think) take
flight for about 30 feet although it just skimmed the ground.
I was told that all 3 are capable of flying. The only migrant
shorebirds were 3 Sanderlings.

On my way out after about 3 hours I decided to scan the Gulls on the
public beach & that turned out to be a good idea. Right in the front
row of the Ring Billed Gulls was a smaller dirty gray gull.
Went closer & it turned out to be the juvenile FRANKLIN'S GULL. But I
only saw it for 5 min when folks walking to the beach went right
through the gull flock & flushed everything. Five min later the
Franklin's was back but then 2 kids decided it would be fun to make
the gulls fly so they plowed through the flock until all the gulls
flew off. Lots of groups of kids were arriving & they all ran at the
remaining gulls while their parents egged them on. That was the end of
gull watching!

Looking for gulls of any kind should be done here early before the
gull chasers arrive.
The only shorebirds found today were Killdeer (2), Piping Plovers (5),
Spotted Sandpipers (3) &
Sanderlings (eventually 3).

Bird-Of-The-Day to the juvenile Franklin's Gull & Runners-Up to the
now flying young Piping Plovers.

Best License Plates seen today were from Quebec & New Hampshire.

Al Stokie
At Montrose in Cook County today