Say Hello to My Little Gull Friend

This weekend, Connecticut was gifted with the arrival of a Little Gull.  Well, arrival implies that there was only one Little Gull around, turns out that the CT Shoreline is playing host to as many as 3 Little Gulls.  Little Gulls are one of the few times where the name is 100% appropriate for the bird.  The Little Gull is indeed the world's smallest gull.  While the vast bulk of the Little Gulls breed in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, they do have a few small and scattered colonies in Ontario.  The Little Gull prefers to eat insects and anything it can find on the surface of the water. This makes it similar to the Ross's Gull and the Bonaparte's Gull.

But that has little bearing on how the LIGU got to CT's coastline and how it was found.  Earlier in the week, one had been spotted in Stratford by a local birder.  So the probability was high that another would be close.  So when one was spotted Saturday Afternoon, I had to rush over to see it.  Unfortunately I was in the middle of a food shopping trip so the poor cashier had to work through my twitching and looking at my phone.  By the time I got over to Stratford, The bird had of course flown away.  Also by the time I got there, a small cadre of birders had joined up to find the gull.  It was great to see several birders at the lookout but it was also fun to see lots of people interested in what we were doing.  While most were confused by the notion of a "Little Gull" Aren't they all little?  Most seem excited to hear about this wayward Eurasian Gull and hoped that we find it

People came, people left, and a few relocations later, we found the bird flying about with a group of about 800 Bonaparte's Gulls.  How do you find a Little Gull amongst 800 Bonnies?  First thing to look for are the dark underwings.  That is the distinguishing mark of a Little Gull.  Which means that most time Gulling is spent minor details and poring over leg and eye colors and hoping that the birds stay still, in the search for a Little Gull, you can do those things, but you are also excited when they take off because then you can see the wings!

I could go on and on.  But instead I will say that the best thing to do when looking for wayward gulls and birds is to look in the field, study books at home, and look in the field!  Until the time, Get out and go birding!

The Little Gull flying away with many other gulls RBGU and BOGU

The Little Gull Closer Up, notice the dark underwings

AllAboutBirds Profile on the Little Gull - Link here

RSPB Profile on the Little Gull - Link here

I am Linking this the Wild Bird Wednesday

Feeding Frenzy of Gulls

During the past couple of outings, I have noticed an odd number of gulls congregating off shore.  As Spring nears, invertebrates are getting ready to release their eggs and with that comes birds and migration.  To migrate, a bird needs flight (duh), a place to go (nesting spot), and food along the way.  The food often presents the most troubling step for birds.  While I can go on and on, I want to talk about the struggle of food.

On a visit to Hammonasset, I witness a real dogfight between some gulls.  They were fighting over food that people had left behind.  This will of course cause problems when the other breeding shore birds start to show up.  But these gulls were really going at it over this food.  There was dynamic flying, calling, and a real sense that this food was absolutely vital to their survival.  As the fight went on, I was impressed with the determination of the gulls and how they had adapted.  All the birds made opportunity cost calculations.  The one with the food was attempting to fly away with as little effort as possible.  As the dog fight continued, fewer and few gulls remained.  They figured that their probability of getting food was low enough that staying wasn't worth their time.  Eventually, the gull who found the food was able to hold off the other gulls...

A Dark Juvenile Herring Gull

The Distant raft of gulls

Herring Gulls fighting, yelling, and flying over food

It was a real dogfight!

Finding Gulls

The art of Gulling is truly a fine art.  Beautiful grays, whites, and blacks, with yellows, greens (not here on the east coast) to round it off make Gulls a serious challenge.  Along with sharing a similar color scheme, Gulls can also hybridize and find themselves in all parts of the world.  Their success is a testament to the capacity of how they can adapt to a diverse set of environments and even human environments.  After all landfills are great spots to see gulls.

Gulls (the Family Laridae) mainly inhabit the Arctic Circle and have moved around the world from there.  The Arctic Circle is also their breeding grounds and where they nest and hybridize and drive many birders crazy.  I've been working on my own skills with Gull Identification and the best practices I've picked up on are A - Going out a lot and learning how to ID Gulls and B - Reading and looking over Petersons Guide to the Gulls of the Americas by Steve Howell and Jon Dunn (link to amazon.com here).

The trick to learning about gulls is to take everything as a learning opportunity.  If you are in front of what looks like 100's of Herring and Ring-Billed Gulls, take time to really notice the differences.  Talk them out, write them out, try to get photos that will help you remember the differences.  I'd like to say I am doing this, but I need to remind myself to go through checklists and comparisons in my head.  Practice makes permanent and I definitely want to start being able to better think through my identification and what I am seeing.  While I work on that, enjoy some pictures of a local Iceland Gull!

Iceland Gull taking a bath

Preening

Watching the Bay

Comparison Shot with Other Gulls

A Cartoon drawing I made of gulls

2014 Year List: 106

Blue Winged-Teal

Northern Shoveler

Visiting the Junkyard

I accomplished a birding first this past weekend.  I went and visited a landfill to see some gulls.  While I had heard of a couple rare gulls at the landfill, I was really going to learn more about gulls as a whole.  In the end, I was confronted with a lot of smells and similarity.  I can't tell you that I was hit with a moment of transient and profound wisdom.  But I did gain a better appreciation of gulls.  I know how that I am getting ready to look at more gulls and really embrace that challenge.

I've never asked for comments but I'd like 2 things if you read this.  #1 what's the best book on gulls out there and #2 what are good sites to get close to some gulls?

Thanks and hope to hear from you all soon!

2013 Year List: 80 (120 to Go!)
Common Goldeneye
Bufflehead
Long Tailed Duck

The Joys of Gulls

Gulls still remain a mystery to me.  And several other people in fact.  Due to the recovery efforts from the recent Blizzard, I am missing out on a Gull Class.  While the glamours of migration bring in different Warblers and raptors is quite alluring, Gulls don't offer any flashy colors or amazing habitats like some warblers and other birds do.  Lush forests to find warblers versus landfills to find Gulls.  In any case, I am excited about going gulling this weekend.  I wish that I was going to be attending the class as well but alas, such is life.

I am going to keep this post short since I've have so many pictures!

 2 Gulls hanging out in a local pond (C)

Western Gulls roosting above the Seattle Aquarium (C)

 A Black Headed Gull (C)

A Laughing Gull (C) Me

Bonaparte Gull hanging near the rocks (c) me

A Northern Cardinal (c) Me

2013 Year List: 76 (123 to go!)

Notable Additions:

Chipping Sparrow

American Goldfinch