Young herring gull flies 1,700 miles to Pascagoula
PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) – A six-month-old herring gull named K2A has defied the odds by flying more than 1,700 miles from Great Duck Island in Maine to Pascagoula’s Point Park.
Pascagoula bird watcher Brian Johnston tells the Mississippi Press that he discovered the bird in late January in Point Park. After snapping some pictures of the gull, he noticed a red band on its left leg with the characters, “K2A.”
With help from an online network of bird watchers, Johnston discovered the bird had been banded on July 22 in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Banders and biologists in Bar Harbor say Pascagoula is the farthest away any of their birds has ever been reported in all the 17 years they have been banding.
Johnston says K2A continues hanging around Point Park, and seems at home.
