Little Gull (Hydrocoloeus minutus)

I might not have seen the bird at all had it not been for a birder from Stephenville who showed it to me in her scope. The bird was at the limits of visual perception, but I could just barely make out a dusky cap when it rested on the water and dark underwings when it took off.

But picking through the Bonaparte's Gulls was turning up nothing, until an erratic, swooping dive caught my eye. There, so suddenly, were those inky black underwings, trimmed with a glowing white edge. I watched the bird until my arms ached, and then kept watching. It had taken three hours to find, and I didn't want to let it go.