Watching Gulls at Niagara Falls

Cool update: I added a 5 min audio recording of Peter giving us gull neophytes a tutorial on the Thayer’s >>> Kumlien’s >>> Iceland Gull cline.

Watching gulls. That’s what birders in the Great Lakes are wont to do in winter. And the place to do it, at least around here (globally speaking) is Niagara Falls. 

Niagara Parks describes the Niagara as a broad, fast-moving river that resists ice-over and carries a steady supply of alewives, shiners and other small fish that make up an important part of a gull’s diet. Thus, the river is a critical winter feeding area for wintering populations of gulls (as well as ducks, geese, and swans). 

The entire Niagara River corridor was the first site in North America to receive international recognition as a “Globally Significant Important Bird Area” by Audubon, Bird Studies Canada, and Nature Canada. As many as 100,000 gulls, including at least 19 of the world’s 43 species, arrive on “migratory flights from as far north as Greenland and the Canadian Arctic to as far south as Florida.”

Mike Powers spotting gulls from the Adam Beck Generating Station

I met up with Mike Powers (ornithologist, naturalist, writer from Southern Tier of New York) and Peter Burke (birder, artist, tour guide leader from London, Ontario) at the Adam Beck Generating Station to watch thousands of gulls in action.

Base of Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant.

Our trip was reminiscent of my last mad dash to the falls to chase a Black-headed Gull. Though both California Gull and Little Gulls had been observed there in recent days, we were not necessarily out to chase them.  We saw generous numbers of Herring and Bonaparte’s Gulls which flanked a few fine specimens of Iceland (“Kumlien’s”) Gulls. Ring-billed Gulls rounded out the mix, and Mike spotted a lone Lesser Black-backed Gull near the barge, a cargo carrier abandoned to its oxidative state in the center of the river.

The turbines of the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant chop up fish and create a frothy delicatessan for gulls.

Watching the gull feeding frenzy from the Adam Beck Generating Station is a blast, and perfectly described by Parks website: ”Approaching the mist of Horseshoe Falls, the dazzling array of waterfowl give way to hordes of gulls, swarming over the white caps and perching on almost every rock above the Falls.  From observation areas overlooking the Niagara River Gorge and Sir Adam Beck Generating Stations, thousands can be seen engaging in a feeding frenzy as the generating stations’ turbines slice up fish before serving them back to the river.”

I was in good company. Mike and Peter are both excellent birders who know far more about gulls than I. Added to that, Peter is a gifted educator who gave us an enthusiastic tutorial on gull ID, even pausing to accentuate finer points with a quick sketch in his notepad. What a privilege to get a lesson from a keen observer who has illustrated field guides such as Nat Geo’s Birds of North America, Birds of Chile, New World Blackbirds, and more.

Here my lens caught Peter in mid-sentence. Whoops.

Peter described the continuing ornithological debate regarding the taxonomic status of Iceland and Thayer’s Gulls, in which some authorities consider Thayer’s Gull to be the dark-mantled form of Iceland Gull, with Kumlien’s Gull (variously treated as a subspecies of either Thayer’s or Iceland Gulls) an intermediate form, forming a cline rather than separate species. For example, the dark-mantled Thayer’s Gulls breed in the western Canadian Arctic and winter on the Pacific coast, the intermediate Iceland “Kumlien’s” gull breeds in the eastern Canadian Arctic, and the clean white form of Iceland Gull occurs further east into Iceland and Greenland.  Listen to an excerpt here.

This all left my brain as frothy as the white caps on the river, however, so I asked him to get back to me in ten years when the Larusologists figure all this stuff out. By then, I may be able to separate Ring-billed from Laughing Gull.

By the way, have the birds of Chile been on your mind? Peter is leading a 14-day tour of Chile, The Heart and Sole of Chile from January 30th to Feb 13th. The tour includes an Easter Island Extension and is bound to blow your mind.