As a Larophile, gulls are a 24/7, 365-day, non-stop pursuit for me. I am a birder, but at heart family Laridae have sunk their teeth into me for almost a decade now, sure to never let go. October marks the start of prime time gulling for me here on the Island. October-March are the best months to be out scanning through flocks of these beautiful, enigmatic, and confusing birds. Something to be taught and always something to be learned with every passing winter, every passing outing, and every passing flyby.
Baja beauty! Post-breeding Heermann's Gull.
Discovery Island. July. 29, 2019.
The summer months often feel like the longest part of the year when the most enthralling (at least to me) species are out of province. On Vancouver Island the gulling doldrums, as I think of them, run from May-August. Even with stunning July Heermann's Gulls at my doorstep, my interest in summer species is low with the absence of rare and challenging taxa. I tend to think of September as a buffer month; a time when the *interesting* species/hybrids such as American Herring Gull, Thayer's Gull, and Glaucous-winged x Herring Gulls (aka. Cook Inlet Gulls) begin to make small re-appearances.
Frequently encountered gulls on
Southern Vancouver Island (2020-2023)
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May-August highlighted
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By late September these three mentioned above are around in notable numbers if you look in any large gull flock. At the same time, California & Heermann's Gull numbers are at their maximum in September. The chance for finding rare gulls also goes up in Sept. Franklin's Gulls are one of these species that seems to be a rare but annually encountered species on VI. Things like Lesser Black-backed Gull also are a possibility as I've found out the last few falls.
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This miniature 1st-cycle Franklin's Gull (L. pipixcan) showed well for a number a weeks at Esquimalt Lagoon in Victoria this September. Attracted to freshly washed up kelp, a couple hundred gulls could be seen in the early days post storm, all snacking up critters from the kelp. Franklin's are a dark-hooded gull in the genus Leucophaeus -- hard to believe but this is the same genus Dolphin Gull is in!
Esquimalt Lagoon, Sept. 27, 2023.
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Last year my good friend Evan Larson and I discovered this 2nd-cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull nestled in a moderately sized group of California Gulls. This was (and still is) the fourth record of this species for Vancouver Island. All three records previously have come from very close by to this sighting, all in recent years (2018 Sooke, 2020 Esquimalt Lagoon, 2021 Sooke). Strange that there are no confirmed records for the central Island or Alberni-Clayoquot region. Lesser Black-backed Gulls and many know have exploded in North America over the last few decades, maybe this is just the beginning of whats to come.
Muir Creek, Shirley, Sept. 10, 2022.
September is also a great time for inspecting fresh immature plumages. While adult gulls are doing their best to molt out ratty remiges and body feathers, a lot of juveniles show no wear or sun damage to feathers and make for ideal types of specimens for viewing. Many of these juveniles have complete full sets of nice looking juvie scapular feathers. A 'bouquet', if you will.
Adult Short-billed Gull in flight -- symmetric feather replacement in the wings taking place.
Port McNeill, Sept. 4, 2023.
1st-cycle Short-billed Gull. With CRISP plumage and a full set of juvenile scapular feathers, this immature is a practically a newborn! Probably no more than a month or two old.
Port McNeill, Sept. 4, 2023.
Adult Thayer's Gull. Virtually all exhibit clean white heads through the month of September. This bird is in heavy primary molt with missing P8 & P7. The outer two primaries (P9 & P10) have still yet to go and are retained from last year. Primary molt for these guys tends to wrap up sometime in late Nov, although occasionally I've seen a few with shortened P10s well into December. You will notice that with these two retained outer primary feathers, P10 has a pure white tip and P9 is predominantly white across the inner web. Underside of P10 on the left wing is also pale. This makes this bird a Thayer's and eliminates American Herring and Cook Inlet Gull as options.
Otter Point, Sept. 17, 2023.
1st-cycle Ring-billed Gull -- one of the most abundant North American gull species. Yet for Vancouver Island, this species is very scares. It's a good day if you find more than one, and in fact, we came across two that morning.
Otter Point, Sept. 17, 2023.
1st-cycle Western Gull. Perhaps unfamiliar to people on the east coast of NA, this species is a commonly encountered larid of the NE Pacific. A coastal species ranging from Baja California, northward to Washington state, Western Gulls barely make it to BC waters, and individuals often falls short of meeting the proper criteria for purity as a result of extensive hybridization with Glaucous-winged Gull. The super saturated, blackish-brown plumage is impactful. The 'window-less' wing panel bodes well for pure Western Gull, as does the pale belly patch and scapulars devoid of internal marbling. The greater coverts are exquisitely crisp and very neatly patterned -- typical of Western
Otter Point, Sept. 17, 2023.
BTW a 'window' is a term which refers to pale inner primaries on a bird. These paler inner primaries contrast with adjacent darker outer primaries, and secondaries. On the above bird there's a completely uniform amount of black pigment from outer primaries through to the tertials -> no 'window'. Hybrid Glaucous-winged x Western Gulls (aka. Olympic Gulls) can look similar but often fall short as hybrids tend to have warm cinnamon-brown colour on the darkest areas of plumage (rather than truly blackish), and show obvious 'windows' (pale inner primaries ~P5-P1).
Backcross. Hybrid. Mutt.
With wings not even at full capacity, this juvenile Olympic Gull still has some growing up to do. The hybrid zone between Western and Glaucous-winged Gull encompasses a wide area -- spanning most of British Columbias coast line. Famous for its prolific seabird diversity, Triangle Island is a strong hold for breeding alcids. Even with charismatic Tufted and Horned Puffins around, I couldn't resist snapping off a couple images of this immature.
Triangle Island. Sept. 4, 2023.
Hopefully I can try to keep up with this format and make these posts a regular thing. We shall see!
