American Herring Gull (smithsonianus)(last update: October 30, 2015) |
|
American Herring Gull (smithsonianus) adult male R4 April 03 2000, La Marque, TX. Picture: Martin Reid.Adult Herring Gull smithsonianus photographed at La Marque Grayhound Racetrack parking lot, Texas on April 3, 2000. The location is between Houston and Galveston. Color-banded, right leg: just above the foot was a metal band (data not discerned); still on the tarsus but just below the tarsus/tibia joint was an unmarked orangy-yellow band. Left leg: two bands on the tarsus resting above the foot; the lower band was unmarked green; the upper band was red with "R4" written sideways in white letters (repeated about 3 or 4 times). after correspondence, the band number appeared 966-30754. This bird did not appear significantly different from the hundred-plus other adult HEGUs at the same site. The bird was banded at an arctic field camp at East Bay, Southampton Island in Hudson Bay, Nunavut, Canada (61.4 N, 84.0 W) on June 21 1998. It was banded as part of a study on Herring Gulls by Karel Allard, a graduate student at the University of New Brunswick. Karel has been collecting information on the reproductive behaviour of Herring Gulls and predation of gulls on eider eggs and chicks. Karel has been at the field camp for several summers and will continue his observations in the 2000's. Distance travelled: 2455 miles / 3942 KM. This is an exact match of the distance to Scotland! A few interesting observations about this gull at the East Bay field site
from Karel: Karel Allard responded by mail (March 28 2001): R4 was captured using a cannon net (necessary to catch immature birds and
non-breeders) on June 21 1998 (sadly its plumage status was only recorded as
immature, suggesting alternate III). It did not breed in 1998. The island's 30 other territory-holding herring gull pairs have partitioned the eider colony into foraging territories containing numbers of eider nests. Because they can only take eggs from unattended eider nests, defended territories have to contain sufficient numbers of nests to ensure the likelihood of at least some being unattended. I am interested in understanding how territories are established, how
hierarchies and possession of quality territories within the eider colony is
determined as well as the reason why certain birds (R4 and "No Code") choose
to float rather than attempt to breed elsewhere in the region (many do). Could they be waiting in line for a territory to become available? We'll This is the first confirmed resight record for herring gull from the Eastern
Arctic (and hopefully not the last!). We are looking into an other recent
potential East Bay resight record from New Jersey. Details to come. Karel Allard And finally, here are Martin's images of the bird: below: East Bay bird sanctuary on Southampton Island in Hudson Bay, Nunavut, Canada (61.4 N, 84.0 W). below: Coral Harbour, entrance on Southampton Island in Hudson Bay, Nunavut, Canada (61.4 N, 84.0 W). |