The search has been on this week for Sabine’s Gulls after two of these gulls were found on Lake Dardanelle. One gull was sighted Tuesday, resulting in me and six others heading over to see if we could spot them. The couple who made the original sighting was gracious enough to let us visit their house and dock to look for the gull. But, we had no luck.

We all headed home. We then got the text: There was two and we needed to hurry back. We got lucky this second time.

Sabine’s Gulls are small seabirds. They nest in the arctic tundra and migrate along the United States’ West Coast. They winter mainly in tropical ocean waters. Despite them mainly being found near the ocean, it’s not unheard of sightings being reported throughout the U.S.’s mainland during migration season. According to All About Birds, one cool fact about this specie is that they will pretend to be injured to lead predators away from their nests. You see this tactic among shorebirds like the Killdeer but it’s actually rare among gulls.