I meant to add: Today, for instance, there were just 5 LBBGs at Captree and 5 at Heckscher (per Pat). ________________________________________ From: Shaibal Mitra Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2021 2:18 PM To: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu) Subject: LI Storm Birding: 310 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
This morning's intense rain and strong easterly winds grounded large numbers of migrating Lesser Black-backed Gulls. At Robert Moses SP in southwestern Suffolk County, Doug Futuyma, Patricia Lindsay, and I counted multiple flocks containing 310 individuals, outnumbering all other gulls combined (Great Black-backed was second most numerous, whereas Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls were in single-digits, so evidently resting some other place). I was able to assess the age composition for most of the flocks: 14 juveniles, 62 second calendar-year, and 150 older immatures and adults (these can be hard to tell apart at this date, without close study, whereas the SY birds are still fairly uniform in appearance). Even just a few years ago, the (then smaller) largest October counts tended to have few SYs, so the timing of movements of the age cohorts is changing, as well as their overall abundance. Another interesting pattern is that habitat specificity seems to be tightening up, even as abundance continues to increase rapidly. This is in marked contrast to several other species that have have increased in overall abundance on Long Island during the same period: Common Eider, Razorbill, and Northern Gannet have also increased greatly over the past 30 years, but each of these has broadened its ecological profile at the same time, occurring in increasingly diverse areas and habitats. The predilection of Lesser Black-backed Gull for the outer coast is as strong, or stronger, now than when the species was rare or uncommon overall. In fact, 15 years ago, sites like Captree and Heckscher, that are just slightly recessed from the ocean, were not obviously worse for LBBGs than the ocean beaches. Now, with overall numbers two orders of magnitude higher, absolute occurrence at these sites is barely greater than it was then. Shai Mitra Bay Shore -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
