A lone Bonaparte’s Gull appeared like a flickering omen in Great Cove last week, apparently migrating south. These 13-inch birds are the smallest of our gulls. They’re not common here, although not extremely rare either. They have a ghostly ability to disappear and reappear when they’re rising and falling on a silvering sea –small, soft interruptions in the water’s fabric:
When flying in a calm corner of the Cove, however, they become white spirits on the loose:
Bonapartes seem more like Terns than Gulls, given their small size, narrow black beaks, large eyes, buzzing calls, and delicate flight that’s almost moth-like at times.
The plumage of the males and females is identical: both have black heads during breeding season, but now they’re bright white and silvery gray, with a hearing-aid-like ear spot.
They’re named after Charles Bonaparte, a French zoologist who was a cousin of Napoleon. (Brooklin, Maine)