Finding the Rare Gulls of Lycoming County
4/5/15
By David Brown
Recently a number of people have asked me why “seagulls” are flying around the area. The simple answer is that flocks of gulls are migrating through on their way to their breeding grounds on the Great Lakes and Canada. We have three species of gulls that pass through regularly each year. The most familiar is the ring-billed gull which is often seen in parking lots trying to steal french fries, but are found in even larger numbers on rivers. Adults have yellow legs and yellow bills with a black ring. The herring gull is a larger species that is often found in small numbers with flocks of ring-billed. Adults have pink legs and a red dot on the bill. The Bonaparte's Gull is a small gull that starts migrating through in large flocks in early April. In the spring, Bonaparte's Gulls are transitioning from their winter plumage, where they have a white head with a small black dot, to their breeding plumage with a fully black head.
This year I have been trying to find additional gull species in the county so I have spent a lot of time on the river walk near the Williamsport dam. Gulls like to stand on a rectangular concrete island near the north shore. During migration small numbers of gulls are found there throughout the day, but as it gets dark hundreds or even thousands of gulls come from all directions until the concrete is full and they start to gather in flocks on the water. This is when the fun begins.
The challenge is to sort through a huge number of gulls in the dying light as they constantly move around. On March 22th, I spotted a huge gull with very dark wings sitting on the water: a great black-backed gull. This species is the largest gull in the world being nearly as large as a bald eagle and have only been reported in Lycoming County a handful of times, including earlier this year when I saw one near the Market Street bridge. On March 24th, I spotted a very large gull that was nearly completely white. This bird was a glaucous gull and was the first ever reported in Lycoming County. On March 29th, I spotted a gull that was the same size as a herring gull but was very pale with white wingtips. This bird was an Iceland gull and was also the first time this species was reported in the county. These species are often found in other parts of Pennsylvania where enormous numbers of gulls congregate in the winter, but catching them as they migrate through our area requires luck and dedication.
The next target is the smallest gull species in the world: the little gull. As flocks of Bonaparte's gulls migrate through I will be checking them for gulls with white wingtips and jet black underwings. Last year at least four little gulls migrated through the county and we hope to see more this year. Even if you never learn to identify the different species of gulls, remember that a seagull is not always just a seagull.
