I was walking the beach at ʻAnaehoʻomalu Bay (often known as A Bay, for obvious reasons) when I noticed this bird walking in the same direction as me. I was idly wondering what kind of gull it was, when I suddenly realized, ‘it’s a gull.’
Unlike most places, a gull sighting in Hawaii is a rarity. I know people who’ve never seen one here. Gulls prefer shallow tidal areas and tropical islands don’t have those, so they’re not gull-friendly. But a few get blown in every year and some arrive as stowaways on ships
This one is a Ring-billed Gull, and it’s the second I’ve seen in my time here. The first, I saw catching a fish (here). I rather liked how this one was strutting its stuff on the beach.
Also posted for Bird of the Week LII. See more responses here.
Graham's Island 
Great sighting and shots! Oh, we have waaaaaayyyy too many RBGulls, lol. But I still enjoy watching them!
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The absence of gulls is an oddity for me because I’ve always lived in places where, like you, there were waaaaaaayyy to many!
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They aren’t found in Australia either. A cool find Graham. I was at a mates place for the past few days at the beach.
One of his surfing spots was flat and there was lots of seaweed on the beach and hundreds of our own Silver Gulls.
I haven’t ever seen that many
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I’ve always lived in places with an abundance of gulls, so it’s an oddity to live in a place where they are basically zero gulls of any kind.
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Yes, that would be weird as it’s the same here. They even go to the cricket in the olden games. Now they employ a falconer, a lot cheaper than teams of cleaners.
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The tip of the bill is a clincher in the ID I suppose. Quite a wide range this bird has: from the middle of the Pacific, across north America and Europe, all the way to the eastern shore of the Caspian sea! I guess it’s widespread but not very common, if you’ve seen it only a couple of times.
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I think it’s common elsewhere, but conditions here just don’t suit them. The only gulls here are a few lost birds. Where I’ve lived previously, gulls were numerous to the point of being a problem.
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I can hardly believe it, having beaches full of them. So hard to imagine none. Do you have any shore birds?
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They were numerous in places I’ve lived previously, so this is a little different. There’s a fair variety of shore birds here, just not the gulls because conditions don’t suit them.
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