[Birdtalk] First N. American LBBG Nesting Record

[Kristin Purdy]

See the story below for news of the first nesting record of the Lesser 
Black-backed Gull in North America.

Kris

APPLEDORE ISLAND, Maine - Researchers at the Shoals Marine Laboratory
have documented a Lesser Black-backed (/Larus fuscus/) x Herring Gull
(/Larus argentatus/) pair nesting on the island. This finding represents
the first record of a breeding Lesser Black-backed Gull with chicks in
North America.

Julie Ellis, Ph.D., Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts
University, who has been studying gulls on Appledore Island since 1999,
first observed the Lesser Black-backed Gull paired with a Herring Gull
at a nest with two eggs on May 29, 2007. Appledore is the site of large
breeding colonies of Great Black-backed (/Larus marinus/) and Herring
gulls, but until now the Lesser Black-backed Gull has been a rare
visitor to the island.

The Lesser Black-backed Gull is a Eurasian species that was first
observed on the Atlantic coast of North America in 1934. During the past
two decades, East coast numbers have increased dramatically in late
winter and early spring, yet no breeding has been observed on this
coast. Bill Etter, who has been tracking the winter distribution of
Lesser Black-backed Gulls in North America for several years, has
documented numbers approaching 500 birds in certain migratory staging areas.

Mary Caswell Stoddard, an undergraduate at Yale University, has been
observing and recording behaviors at the nest on a daily basis as part
of her summer research at the Shoals Marine Laboratory. Stoddard first
observed two chicks at the nest on June 22, 2007. One chick was killed
by another gull in late July. The surviving chick was banded in early
August: it has one metal band on its right leg and a tall plastic band
on its left leg. The plastic band has a 3-digit code ("N02") etched in
white on a green background.

Research on gulls has been conducted at and supported by Shoals Marine
Laboratory for nearly three decades. The gulls of Appledore are the
focus of ongoing studies of ecological, evolutionary, behavioral and
environmental significance. Stoddard's research is funded in part by a
National Science Foundation site award for Research Experiences for
Undergraduates (REU).

Herring and Lesser Black-backed gulls belong to a closely related group
of large white-headed gulls whose evolutionary history has long
presented a challenge to evolutionary biologists. Ellis anticipates that
this record will provide new insights into the relationships among
species of large white-headed gulls.

Julie C. Ellis, Ph.D.
SEANET Coordinator
Tufts University
Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine