Today (Tues. 4/20), in brief check of a couple of spots in Ottawa Co., n.w.
Ohio, I saw two Lesser Black-backed Gulls: a third-cycle bird at the east
beach at East Harbor State Park (east of Port Clinton) and a first-cycle
bird at the county landfill (on Rt. 163 east of Oak Harbor).  Historically,
April 20 would have been a little late for multiples of the species.  But of
course historically they weren't here at all, with the first U.S. record
dating from 1934 and the first Ohio record from 1977; the main thing that
history tells us now is that we can expect to see more of these birds, more
of the time.

A couple of weeks ago on Ohio-birds there was some discussion of the
explosive growth in the wintering population of Lesser Black-backed Gulls in
North America, and speculation about the source.  As most gull aficionados
would agree, Iceland -- in the news recently as a source of volcanic ash --
is also probably the source for most of our Lesser Black-backs.  This island
nation far out in the North Atlantic had its first nesting of the species,
colonizing from Europe, in 1913.  The population there increased slowly and
gradually for several decades, while the number of individuals visiting the
North American coastline in winter also gradually increased after the first
one in 1934.  By the 1970s, Iceland had up to 10,000 pairs, and the species
was becoming regular in North America, with one or more reaching Ohio in
1977.  With continued increase since then, the breeding population in
Iceland is now probably over 30,000 pairs, and eastern North America seems
to have become a regular winter range for many of these birds.

Lesser Black-backed Gull also has been breeding in Greenland since about
1990, and the population there is now estimated at over 700 pairs in at
least two sites.

While we're still waiting for a breeding record in North America, there have
been some "half-records."  A lone Lesser Black-back mated with a Herring
Gull in southeast Alaska (!) in 1993.  In 2007, a Lesser Black-back appeared
in a Herring Gull colony on Appledore Island, Maine, and mated with one of
the local birds.  Apparently the same individual returned in  2008, and this
time it was captured and banded with a field-readable band, "F05,"  so we
know that definitely the same individual returned to Appledore in summer
2009 (again mating with a Herring Gull, raising two hybrid offspring).
Remarkably, birders found this individual wintering at Daytona Beach Shores,
Florida, in the winters of 2008-2009 and 2009-2010, establishing F05 as a
gull celebrity, watched by the paparazzi at both ends of its migratory
route. The saga of Lesser Black-backed Gull in North America has been
fascinating so far, and I'm sure there are more chapters to come.

Kenn Kaufman
Oak Harbor, Ohio

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