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The Daily Bucket [1]

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Date: 2022-08-03

Mew (left n front), Olympic (right)

A mostly Glaucous-winged Olympic in back (the big one) and Mew gulls in front.

Note how the Mews are not just smaller in body size but also bill size, even relative to total size (hence the name Short-billed)

July 30, 2022

Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest

We have one kind of gull in the Salish Sea who lives here all year-round, our default gull: the Olympic, which is actually a hybrid of two regional species, the Glaucous-winged and Western gulls (while there are some birds that look like Glaucous-wingeds, there’s ornithological debate: are there are any genetically purely GWGUs, or are they all some mix after thousands of years of interbreeding producing hybrids more successful than the parent species). Olympics (&/or Glaucous-wingeds) are the only gulls who breed here in the Salish Sea. During the rest of the year we get other kinds who spend some portion of their lives in the waters of the San Juan islands.

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THE DAILY BUCKET IS A NATURE REFUGE. WE AMICABLY DISCUSS ANIMALS, WEATHER, CLIMATE, SOIL, PLANTS, WATERS AND NOTE LIFE’S PATTERNS. WE INVITE YOU TO NOTE WHAT YOU ARE SEEING AROUND YOU IN YOUR OWN PART OF THE WORLD, AND TO SHARE YOUR OBSERVATIONS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE PURPOSE AND HISTORY OF THE DAILY BUCKET FEATURE, CHECK OUT THIS RECENT DIARY: DAILY BUCKET PHENOLOGY: 11 YEARS OF RECORDING EARTH'S VITAL SIGNS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS

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Late summer is a really nice time for those of us who love gulls. The Heermann’s arrive in mid July but only stick around until October, and they’re only offshore. Bonaparte’s are even harder to see since they move around in big flocks, only rarely along the shores of the island where I live. California gulls are reliable visitors but only briefly pass through between late July and September, stopping in big flocks to feed on their way westward to the open coast from their breeding grounds inland. Ring-billed and Herring gulls for some reason rarely appear out in the islands although they are abundant on the mainland of the Salish Sea.

Then there’s the Mew gulls (now called Short-billed) who actually spend most of their year here, just departing for a few months to breed, some of them just north of here in British Columbia. They leave in April and return at the end of July.

So it was wonderful to hear distinctive mewing calls last week down at the bay, which signaled the arrival of the Mew gulls. Welcome Mews! Unlike the Olympic gulls, Mews are more social so you see lots of interaction among them (also true for Californias, Heermann’s and Bonaparte’s).

When I stopped to watch them I could see there was actually a mix of gulls on the seaweedy sand/mudflat where they foraged.

Low tide, right then about 0.0 feet MLW (mean low water). Some of the gulls.

California gulls are big, both body and bill, compared to the Mews. Both have black wing tips though and yellow legs (light is bad here, hard to see color).

Olympics have pink legs. Mews have yellow.

Late summer is a good time for me to practice gull identification — pretty challenging beyond the basics of adult species ID, for me at least. Immature gulls are tricky. Besides the mottled brown plumage most immature gulls have, their bare parts are different colors. Like the imm Mew in front, below: it has pink legs (instead of yellow) and a partly black bill (instead of yellow). All gulls look different at earlier stages of their lives, with each molt appearing different. And some mature in 3 years while others take 4 (the bigger the gull the longer maturation). Then there’s hybrids lol. I admit I make assumptions based on who is usually here at certain seasons. I’m certain I’ve overlooked rare gulls.

These are all Mews

Short video showing some desultory socializing among these Mew, California and Olympic gulls on the low tide flat.



There was some foraging, some grooming, even some midday snoozing by these mostly Mew gulls, but I got the sense their behavior shows them settling in to their winter home. A certain amount of scuffling. Do they meet up again here from different summer breeding sites, do they recognize each other? What’s it like for the newest members of the tribe, here for their first winter? And I have to wonder how the Olympic gulls feel about all these summer arrivals. Come winter, except for rarities, it’ll be just them and the Mews on these beaches. Is summer party time in the Salish Sea for gulls?

Addendum:

August 2, 2022

Yesterday the tide was not quite as low, and the gulls were chillin on the dock railing instead of on the beach, since the most productive part of the bay was underwater. There were a few Olympics in there, as best I could tell, but it was mostly Mews. They are extremely social and talkative!

Tide about 1.0 foot MLW. More water, less seaweedy exposed sand/mudflat - only a foot of vertical rise covers a lot of area. That tells you how flat this bay is.

Chillin. Brown youngsters are interspersed among the adults.

Mews get stirred up easily but they don’t get stressed about it. Maybe it’s safety in numbers. While I was on the beach watching them, they all flew up a few times and then settled back down on the railing. An eagle flying by will do that although I didn’t notice one this time (but they might have).

Note the black wingtips with white “mirrors” (the shape and arrangement of those white patches help in ID, given a sharp enough image).

Eventually Mr O came walking back up the headwalk from where he’d been working on the boat. The Mews did their thing, flying up as he approached and settling back down behind him.



But they got their payback for the inconvenience: the headwalk is covered with birdshit lol. It’s the season!

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High overcast to partly sunny in the PNW islands. Temperatures pleasantly moderate here by the ocean, mid 60s. Calm.

WHAT’S UP IN NATURE IN YOUR AREA TODAY?

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