It might be interesting for those interested in gulls to share some
thoughts about recent phenomena. Numerous first county records have been
set at inland reservoirs since 15 Feb. I just heard from Doug Overacker,
who summarizes reports from Springfield County's Buck Creek Res--125 air
miles from the Lake--of lesser black-backed once, Iceland once, and
glaucous gulls on three occasions. At Hoover Res here, we've had all
three, two of them first county records I believe, plus a kittiwake--our
second of the season--over five days. Bob Royse just reported 2 lessers,
a glaucous, and a great black-backed gull from Deer Creek Res in
Pickaway Co. Ethan and Craig noted unusual inland numbers of these gulls
in the NE inland counties. Tom Bain had a lesser up the road at Alum
Creek Res the other day. Gabe reported unprecedented numbers of
white-winged gulls at Oberlin Res.
        Probably others of these gulls have been missed, mostly because many
birders inland are not used to them, and pay less attention to gulls
this time of year, when the same old two species are as many as they
expect. Observers at Ohio's lakefront hotspots certainly noticed
unusually high numbers of white-winged gulls this winter, though gbbgs
and lbbgs seemed less numerous than usual.  I could be wrong, but I
don't recall any news like this from adjacent Great Lakes states.
        So, why might this be happening?  Sure, gull migration is
underway--except Bonaparte's, not due for a week or two--but not in a
dramatic way as far as I hear (though at Hoover we saw 10-20 thousand
ring-bills last Saturday, even though the proportion of younger birds
seemed low; yesterday we saw fewer than a thousand, but still a
glaucous). And of course the four aforementioned species, which do not
breed in the Great Lakes, but far north and east of here (yeah, there's
a record or two of gbbg nests in the region) seem to be headed the wrong
way!
        Once you eliminate normal migratory movements, the next explanation you
tend to look for is food. There's been more open water on Lake Erie than
on reservoirs recently. Are inland reservoirs offering some attractive
new food source that attracts species that breed far to the north to
detour south for it? Or is food getting scarce in Lake Erie, where all
these birds would be now in Ohio during normal years? I'm at a loss.
        Strong prevailing winds? This is hardly the first year we've had strong
winds in winter, but the first time these gulls have been noticed moving
this far south in such numbers.
        Thoughtful speculations are invited. I haven't seen anything like this
in my years of birding in Ohio, and I can't find any evidence of it in
the historical record,either.
Bill Whan
Columbus

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]