Little Gull in Gibraltar - 15 Nov 2024
Last week Bobby Irwin and Justin Labadie reported a pair of Little Gulls at the Humbug Marina in Gibraltar. For some reason I was under the impression that it was the boat launch at the refuge and dipped on my only attempt to relocate them. This morning Karen Markey reported a Little Gull continuing at Humbug Marina across from JP's Waterfront restaurant off Middle Gibraltar road. I'd been looking in the wrong place.
I drove down Gibraltar Road to JP's this cloudy, cool (50F) afternoon to look for the Little Gull. Karen had reported it flying in the canal west of the restaurant, so I slowly cruised looking for it. A couple of Bonaparte's Gulls and Ring-billed Gulls were roosting on the dock posts, but that was it.
I parked at the corner where the canal opens into the Detroit River and spent 30 minutes or so scanning the docks across the channel and the south end of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge where dozens of Bonaparte's Gulls and a pair of Forster's Terns could be seen foraging along the shoreline that held several Great Egrets.
The docks across the channel were covered in hundreds of Ring-billed and Herring Gulls, and I even managed to find an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull swimming below the pier.
Bonaparte's Gulls were flying by and foraging in the channel in front of the marina and I made some attempts to photograph them in flight. Focusing was difficult as they were flying by close and passing behind piers and docks.
As I was giving up I got back into the car and starting driving slowly out. That's when I spotted the adult Little Gull with its black wing linings foraging by itself in the canal west of the restaurant. Pulling over I attempted to photograph it as it made a circuit among the dock piers. Again, photographing was difficult since it was close and passing behind lots of obstructions. At one point it flew out into the open channel and headed for the river.
According to Birds of the World (birdsoftheworld.org): The smallest gull worldwide, the Little Gull breeds in small numbers in North America but its main range is in the Palearctic. It now occurs regularly in small numbers along the eastern seaboard of the United States and on the Great Lakes, and it appears to breed mostly in the Great Lakes basin and in Canadian wetlands further north, usually near Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), Black Tern (Chlidonias niger), Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri), or Ross's Gull (Rhodostethia rosea). Although numbers are generally increasing in North America, few breeding locations are known.
