First miss of the year and FOY sightings

Well, I went to go find the Western Kingbird again. I figured it was so easy the first time, why not try to get it for this year’s list. It is an attractive bird anyways, so it would be nice to see again. Well, no such luck for me today. I arrived and a Herb from Lancaster County was already looking for. He had not seen it yet. I stood around for maybe 15 minutes before I took off to see what else I could find. I drove past the dump and was immediately impressed with the number of gulls taking advantage of the free food and the thermals created by the abnormally warm, 60°+ weather. Scanning the flock, I mostly saw Ring-billed and Herring Gulls, mostly adults but there was one adult Great Black-backed Gull, a FOY (first of year). Having met with a piece of luck on that birding front I decided to swing back around to the kingbird spot to see if my absence had inspired it to show itself. No luck there so I proceeded on to my fiancee’s house. The only good bird of the 40 minute car ride there was my FOY Red-shouldered Hawk, a long-tailed juvenile bird. No pictures today but hopefully this coming week I will edit some more from my trip to New Jersey and post them.