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Herring Gull

Status Common resident. Breeds. Abundant along the coast throughout the year, particularly in the vicinity of its many breeding colonies. Frequents many rivers and lakes in summer, breeding on islands in some lakes. Banding has shown that many Herring Gulls move south to New England in the winter. Those that remain are scavengers, often gathering in huge assemblies about sewer outlets and garbage disposal sites. During the past 70 years, its numbers increased greatly, initially because its persecution became illegal but more recently because the growing abundance of garbage provides it with a secure winter food supply.

Description Length 58-66 cm. Adults in summer: Back and upper surface of wings pale gray; outer primaries black, tipped and spotted with white near the ends and gray basally, the gray extending closest to the tips on the inner webs; rest of plumage white; bill yellow with red spot on lower mandible; legs and feet flesh-coloured. Adults in winter: Similar but head and neck streaked with brownish gray. First year immatures: Generally grayish brown; upperparts mottled with light gray or buff; head streaked with dirty white; tail and primaries plain blackish brown. Various transition plumages occur between the first-year immature bird and the adult.

Breeding Nest: Usually on the ground, in dense colonies. Sometimes located on cliffsides, on rocks in lakes, and infrequently in trees (spruce only, in my experience). Nests are composed of coarse weeds and decaying vegetable matter in variable quantities. Eggs: 2-3, usually 3; grayish to olive-brown, with heavy, chocolate-coloured blotches scattered over the surface. Frequently individual eggs, sometimes all, in a set are plain ashy blue or olive-gray without the usual markings. Some most unusual Herring Gull eggs resemble the reddish eggs of the Peregrine Falcon. I have seen only two such sets, both laid by the same bird on Kent Island, New Brunswick. One of these sets is in the Nova Scotia Museum. Egg laying begins in early May but it is not until late May that all members of most colonies are so engaged. If the first and second nests are destroyed, a third attempt is customary.

Range Breeds across northern North America from southern Alaska to south-central British Columbia, and from southern Baffin Island to New York State; this includes the interior of the continent south to the Great Lakes. Winters from southern parts of its breeding range to Panama and Barbados. Different subspecies breed in the Old World.

Remarks The Herring Gull is by far the most abundant of our gulls, its great numbers creating a significant impact on man's economic interests.

It is valuable as a scavenger, keeping our beaches and shorelines free from decaying fish and similar refuse, and on occasion from rats which infest our harbours. Large congregations often gather on meadowlands and mown fields to eat meadow voles, grasshoppers and other insects. Large flocks at sea direct fishermen to schools of herring by screaming excitedly and hovering in dense formation above the fish. The loud clamorous cries of Herring Gulls about their breeding rookeries have warned mariners of the dangerous proximity of land in dense fog. The gull also adds to the aesthetic quality of our coasts.

These birds have a negative impact on human interests. At times they seriously damage blueberry crops; they carry off fish placed on fields for fertilizer; and their method of breaking open mussels by dropping them from heights onto hard surfaces has damaged the roofs of automobiles. The roofs of fishhouses and other outbuildings along the shore have been damaged by the chemical action of the excrement dropped by the hundreds of gulls that resort to the ridgepoles of these buildings at roosting time. The gulls also devour fish that fishermen leave exposed for brief periods.

Herring Gulls have greatly increased in number during recent decades. unquestionably the result of protection given under the international Migratory Bird Convention between Canada and the United States, which went into effect in Canada in 1917. Previously, it had been killed indiscriminately to supply a heavy commercial demand for its feathers. An unforeseen result of protection is that the species is now so plentiful that it has become a serious threat to terns.