White-winged Gulls: ghosts from the past...

 

Gulls used to be a thing at Moore. They would come down from the nearby (within eye-shot) Arpley Tip and bathe on the pools in large numbers, particularly Birchwood Pool but sometimes, in smaller numbers on Pumphouse Pool too - and it was great. Now to give you a feel for the spectacle that was winter gulling at Moore, one needs only to hit the Google to find images that captured those halcyon days...

Apart from the usual Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Lesser Black-backed, Common and occasional Great Black-backed Gulls...

... we'd get a regular winter sprinkling of others, most commonly Yellow-legged and Mediterranean, but the odd Caspian Gull, Kumlein's and Ring-billed once in a blue moon as well, and I think a single Kittiwake, although that could have been on the river... BUT, what Moore became somewhat famous for, from about 2012-2016, were winter white-wings, namely, Iceland Gull and Glaucous Gull. Not a winter went by where you couldn't get both species on one or other of the pools. So, I thought today, I'd have a trawl through the online records from Birdguides and try to build up a picture of their comings and goings at the site. Why Birdguides? Because there's no definitive record keeping of sightings at Moore other than those buried in individual notebooks and so the only independent data I have are from sightings posted up by visitors to the site... and in a way that's OK, because it highlights if you will, what others considered the highlights of their own visits... AND... the data go back 20 years... so what do they tells us?

First, there are no sightings of these (or other 'interesting' gulls) after 2016. Nothing. It's as if they stopped coming. And actually, they did! The reason? Arpley Tip finally closed in December of 2016 after much protest locally about the smell and the drifting litter (we used to get both at Moore too...).

...and almost overnight, the gulls left, never to return. Gone are the days of scanning the tip and the pools and the river at Richmond Bank for interesting winter gulls... the local residents' cloud had been lifted and with it so too the silver lining for local birders', winter gull ticks - ah well.

So, as a final hurrah and celebration of what was, let's take a look at the gulls...

Iceland Gull

Between 2002-2016 there were 94 records of these little beauties (records below in parentheses). The only years in which none were reported was 2007 and 2011 - I don't know why. If you do, please let me know in the comments section! 

Records would begin to appear in very late November (1) and quickly build up during December (19) and then peak in January (31), before beginning to fall in February (24), with the last records in March (9). Almost all sightings were on Birchwood Pool and Pumphouse Pool, with the latter's records being dominated with reports of Juveniles. Indeed, it seems for most observers that birds were either Adults or Juveniles, with relatively few people reporting them as 1w, 2w or 3w - I guess it takes a certain 'expertise' to do that and I suspect the 'w' reports came from Seaforth gullers on days out to Moore. 

Of the 94 records available, 49 (52%) were of Juveniles, 20 (21%) 2w, 3(3%) 3w and 9(10%) were adults. The remaining records (14%) did not specify age. Most records are of 1-2 birds although on occasion, up to SIX were present at once (e.g. 21st Feb 2009 = 2w +5juvs).

Glaucous Gull

During the same 15 year period, Glaucs too were regular, although reported less often and in smaller numbers.  None were reported in 2002, but they were present every year until the tip closed save for a weird run of years (2005-2007) in which none were recorded. Again, I have no idea why and so if you do, please let me know...

In total 55 records of Glaucous Gull appear in the Birdguides records for Moore and just like it's diminutive cousin, birds began to appear in November (1), grew in numbers through December (17), staying relatively constant through January (16) and February (16) before dropping off in March (13). Numbers therefore were more 'stable across the winter months than for Iceland Gull, with no clear peak. Again, almost all sightings were on Birchwood Pool and Pumphouse Pool, with the latter's records being dominated with reports of Juveniles. Indeed, juveniles and 2w comprised a whopping 96% of all records, with only 2 adults reported during the whole period.

The others...

... and then of course, there are the others. Now I'll begin with an apology, I'm NOT going to go through them all in detail (maybe another blog), so what follows is a basic summary to round things off - the blog today is, after all, supposed to be about white-winged gulls, is it not...

SO, in order of the number of records on Birdguides, here goes...

Mediterranean Gull - 42 records; Nov(1), Dec(7), Jan(10), Feb(14), Mar(9)...May(1)

Yellow-legged Gull - 40 records; Nov(2), Dec(11), Jan(7), Feb(12), Mar(6), Apr(1)... and an odd one in Aug.

Caspian Gull - 24 records; Nov(1), Dec(3), Jan(6), Feb(6), Mar(7)... Sep(1)

Ring-billed Gull - 6 records; Dec(1)... Feb(3), Mar(2)

Kumlein's Gull - 4 records; Feb(2), Mar(2)

Kittiwake - 1 record; Mar(1)

...and that's that. 

Of course, there will have been many more gull sightings during those years, but it paints an interesting picture does it not - not least of which is the importance of inland rubbish dumps near pools... at least for us birders ;)

PS. and in case you're wondering why the three records of Laughing Gull (Sat 30th-Sun 31st May 2009) do not appear in the above list... it's because it was an immature Black-headed Gull... as 2 of the 3 records point out ;)