I read with interest, the comments re Bonaparte’s Gull numbers throughout the region and state(s).
I can recall very vividly, during the 1980’s, watching this species’ numbers begin to build in late February and peak in April, in some of the major Long Island south shore inlets and bays, with the most notable being Jones’ Inlet, Nassau, NY. There, at its peak, one could formerly expect more than several thousand birds, and without exaggeration, perhaps upwards of 7K-9K birds in a massive flock, if the tides were timed correctly with the peak of this staging event. The flock would drift up the inlet on the rising tide, and then the flock would pick up and move back down to the mouth of the inlet, allowing themselves to drift up and down the length of the inlet, surface feeding all the way. Indeed, one could reasonably expect 1-4 Black-headed Gulls, and anywhere from 4-10 Little Gulls if the birding gods were smiling that day for you, at Jones’ Inlet, if my memory is correct. And at least three times, Ross’s Gull (Levine, Kurtz) was found in these large flocks at the inlet. And then as others described on this thread, over time, those flock grew smaller and smaller, until they were almost completely absent, and then eventually, the Bonies arrival became a “non-event”. No more. Many of us blamed this change in numbers on dredging of the inlet to improved water quality (no more waste water being dumped there by diminishing bait fish which the gulls feed upon), to physical changes at the inlet, and so on. Who knows if any of these assertions is correct? I wonder if the species’ population has truly crashed, or have they followed/found a new or alternative food source far offshore due to changes in nearshore waters? Sent from my iPhone John Askildsen Millbrook, NY -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
