Here are some more observations on gulls. If you have any corrections or additions I would really appreciate them. Dennis Varza Fairfield One of my goals is to try and figure out how many individuals of the rare gulls wintered in Connecticut. To do this we need to know something about their movements. From looking at banding recoveries of Herring Gulls nesting in the Norwalk Islands and from general reading, first Year birds travel farther from the nesting area than older birds. This seems to be true for other species. Most of the Glaucous and Iceland Gulls found in Connecticut are first winter birds. First winter Ring-billed Gulls pass through the state in September and October and are returning north in March. I’ll bet if one went to Maryland and Virginia in the winter most of the them would be first winter. Understanding winter movements within the state is the real challenge. It would be nice if we could color mark the gulls but that will not happen. Imagine an Iceland Gull hanging out on Long Beach in Stratford. I imagine that it would have no trouble flying across to Seaside Park or to Milford Pt. for that matter. How far do they really range? What about birds in Hartford? Do they ever travel to the coast? My guess would be that it depends upon the availability of food. When there were landfills they most likely stayed put. Now, when the weather is harsh, I can imagine them moving to the coast for a while, then moving back north. Keeping these ideas in my mind I have been trying to figure out how many rare gulls visited the state. Topic 1 Small Gulls Bonaparte’s Gull activity seems to be pretty much over. Last week I was seeing 50 to 60 birds each at Southport Beach and Cove Island Park. Immature gulls made up about 1/3 of the birds. Over the weekend there were no Bonaparte’s Gulls at Southport Beach. Topic 2 White-winged Gulls Glaucous Gull There were 13 reports of Glaucous Gull in 11 towns, all but one were reported as (1W) (1-2W). I assume it was the same bird seen in Bridgeport and Stratford (6 days apart). One was seen in Weathersfield Cove all month of December (Steve Kotchko). and also may be responsible for the sightings in Hartford, West Hartford, and Windsor, (4 records). Also, there were 2 days when 2 separate birds were seen. Other than the Hartford bird, It looks like Glaucous Gulls generally do not set up a winter territory. My estimate is that there were a maximum of 9 different birds and a minimum of 4. Nov 29 (1), Dec (8), Jan (1), Feb (2), Mar 26 (1) Iceland Gull Iceland Gulls have a distinctive sub-species the Kumlien’s Gull. It nests in eastern Canada and winters on the east coast. There were 7 records. The thing to remembers is that no reference to Kumlien’s does not necessarily mean a non-Kumlien’s I will look at them later. There were 29 records of Iceland Gull. The earliest Record was 11/13, The last record was 3/22. The large number of reports makes interpretation difficult. Individuals have been known to hang out in an area but how much do the roam is open to question. There have been some days when 2-3 different birds have been seen at different locations on the same day. In eastern Connecituct there were 3 reports in Plainfield. 12/30 to 1/21. Only one sighting was aged (ad). In Waterford 2 (1W) birds were observed on 11/15. (likely passage birds) and one unknown aged bird on 1/21 Smith Cove. In the Hartford Area there were 11 reports all were first winter birds except for 2 un-aged birds. Records ranged from 12/6 to 3/20 [Dec (2) Jan (3), Feb (1), Mar (5)] Duplicate locations include Wethersfied Cove, Batterson Pond, and West Hartford Reservoir #6. If we assume the same bird in those each location. it would drop things down to 6 individuals. On the shore there were 12 reports from Greenwich to Madison. There was an (Ad) on Long Beach in Stratford for 2 days. and there was a (1W) bird in the area of Oyster River to Merwin Pt. from March 15 to 30. that brings things down to 8 records, There was a (2W) bird in Fairfield on 3/15 and a U aged bird in Madison on 3/22 both likely passage birds. The remaining bird were un-aged and (Ad) New Haven, and a (1W) bird in Stratford. With regards to Kumlian’s Gulls, records ranged from 11/19 to 4/3. Nick Bonomo found 3 different aged birds in the Windsor-Bloomfield Landfill. and another (1W) at the Hartford Riverside Park. Boat Launch. On the shore I had an (Ad) in Bridgeport in early March while Nick had an (Ad) and a (1W) in Bridgeport in early April, likely passage birds. That would make 7 Kumlian’s (Ad)-2 (3W)-1 (2W)-1 (1W)-3 All together I would estimate 25 to 30 bird were observed iin Connecticut. 7 of which were Kumlian’s. Lesser Black-backed Gull All four age classes were reported. Adults are known to take up residence in an area during the winter, often for several years running. There was one resident adult gull in Westport (Burial Hill Beach) that has been seen for several years. The earliest record was 15 Sept. and the last record I have is 26 Mar. There was another resident adult gull in Weathersfield, Weathersfield Cove. The earliest record was 13 Dec. and the last record was 17 Feb. There was likely a third resident in the New London area. there was only 2 reports, but considering the lack of coverage, what would you expect. One was at the Waterford High School on 12/12 and New London, Smith cove 1/29 There were repeated sightings of adults at Bridgeport’s Beardsley Pk. but they were inconsistent (Dec 11, Jan 26, 29, . I covered Bridgeport regularly so if a bird was being a resident, it would have been seen more frequently. This leads to the following questions: Are the Bridgeport sightings from the Westport or Hartford birds? Are the sightings from passage birds? There were 5 reports of 3rd winter birds. 2 in Bridgeport at Seaside Park 10 days apart, and 3 inland, Since this plummage is very transitory it seems unlikely that there were 4 separate birds. If we assume 1 bird then we see a bird going from Hartford, to the shore and back inland. (1/16 Bloomfied), (2/10-20 Bridgeport), (3/19 East Hartford), (3/20 Farmington). There were 2 reports of 2nd winter birds.(1/10 Madison), (3/25 Bristol). One or two birds? There were 4 reports of 1st winer birds. 2 in November, and 2 in March. These seem to be clearly passage birds. In Conclusion I would estimate that there were 3 to 5 Adult gulls wintering in the state. There was 1 to 2 third winter gulls. and 6 transient 1w and 2w gulls. That makes for a minimum of 10 birds and a maximum of 13 birds.