Howdy all! The recent report of an Ivory Gull in Virginia last weekend picqued my curiosity about records for this high arctic gull in the Lower 48. I had already done a little research on this bird before my trip to Alaska earlier this year. Best chances there (in Spring) are in Gambell in early May, highly dependent on weather conditions and the amount of pack ice near shore (more is better). Your chances are roughly 50-50. Ross' Gull is about 1 in 4 (recently maybe less) there at the same time. Here's what I could find about lower 48 records in _America's 100 Most Wanted Birds_ by Steven G. Mlodinow and Michael O'Brien, Falcon Press, 1996: "Most Ivory Gull records have been between late November and early March with a peak between late December and mid-January. There are also two April and two late-October sightings. The two truly startling unseasonable records, however, have to be the bird in Dodge County, Wisconsin, on July 24, 1972, and another at Fort Peck, Montana, on May 25, 1974." -Greg Miller Lusby, MD