On 24 October 1977, I found an adult black-backed gull resting on a pilingnear the fishing pier at Ft. Morgan, AL. Shortly thereafter, it was observed byTom and Joe Imhof, Lucy and Scot Duncan, Mary Lou Mattis and Roberta Bonwit. And so the saga of a long-lived and sometimes controversial gull began. The bird was identified, based on size, coloration and shape, as a Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) , a species with a history of vagrancy. The sighting was reported in Alabama Birdlife (1977, Vol. 25) as Alabama’s first record of this species.