Reader Ed Kroc sent a sequence of gull-rearing photos. His notes:
Heeding your call for more wildlife photos, here is a batch of baby Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens) photos, strong challengers for cutest baby animal in my opinion. These are all from one of the nests I was routinely observing this past summer from a bridge in downtown Vancouver, BC.
The first photo shows the father-to-be atop the nest, “panting” due to the unusually extreme heat we were having then in early July (about 32 degrees Celsius – very hot for Vancouver). Notice the tour boat on the harbour in the background. Most gulls simply clear out a little scrape in the dirt to use as a nest, but that clearly wasn’t an option here. You can see that this particular pair actually constructed quite a robust structure from scratch.
The next three photos show the 2 days between the first and the third chicks hatching. First, Dad is incubating the other two as the eldest chick plays with some nesting material. Then, the second chick has just emerged from his/her shell, right next to the third chick still inside an egg. The next day the last egg hatched. You can see the youngest chick chomping on Dad’s leg, wanting him to sit back down as he checks on what the other hatchlings are getting up to.
I suspect that the striking spotted pattern of the chicks helps hide them in the wild (though not on rooftops), but of course I’m not sure. Readers who know anything about this are invited to comment below.
A short time later, the mother gull returned with some food for the hatchlings. You can see the two older chicks scuttling out of the nest to pick at the blob of seafood, while the youngest chick (still less than a day old and not completely dried off from hatching yet) is not quite ready to venture out of the nest cup.
About a week old now, the next two pictures show the middle chick basking in the innocence of youth. After running around for a bit, he/she let out a large yawn in the shade and then summarily plopped right down in place for a nap.
Fast forward a few more days and one of the three chicks had leapt down to the main rooftop below. In the picture, Dad is calling to the chick below. The other two chicks joined their more adventurous sibling a couple days later, and for the next 6 weeks, they grew and learned to fly on the open rooftop together.
Here’s the range of the species, taken from the Cornell website. They omitted the key, but purple is year-round sites, red is summer (breeding) sites, and blue is winter (non-breeding) sites.
Where do gulls normally nest? If on the ground, I can see how the chick coloration would be good camouflage.
In urban areas they favor rooftops, so I’m guessing they go for cliffs and rock ledges in the wild.
In those environments I expect their main chick predators would be birds of prey, and I would not be surprised about other seabirds taking the opportunity as well.
Some species of gull, like the kittiwakes, will nest on cliffs, others like the Bonaparte’s gull will nest in trees, but the vast majority of gulls are ground nesters. Intracontinental species usually nest on the shores of or on small islands within remote inland lakes, while coastal species – like the Glaucous-winged Gull pictured here – nest primarily on small, rocky islets close to the ocean shore.
Large birds of prey are definitely common predators of hatchlings, but by far the biggest cause of mortality is death by conspecifics. In their typical nesting environments, the young will often wander out of their parent’s nesting territory into a neighbouring pair’s territory, and this often leads to a quick death at the bills of the defending birds. Interestingly, this mortality factor is almost entirely eliminated from the reproductive dynamics of urban rooftop nesters, as most rooftops are big enough to support only a single territory.
Another interesting thing to note is that although this species nests near the ground in nonurban settings, they have no problems with nesting atop tall buildings within a city. Glaucous-winged Gulls routinely nest on the rooftops of 20+ or 30+ storey buildings in Vancouver.
A very nice series of photos Ed.
I’m always interested in species that use man-made structures and human activity (noms) for their advantage. I’m sure species like gulls and crows would survive fine in the wild without humans, but we seem to make their existence easier.
Thanks, Mark! I too am interested in how species adapt to and flourish in urban environments. Vancouver is a great place to study urban gulls as there is such a rich population already thriving.
That’s a great series of photos!
Great story and pics. Thanks.