Fidelity and Persistence of Ring-Billed (<i>Larus delawarensis</i>) and Herring (<i>Larus argentatus</i>) Gulls to Wintering Sites

Clark, Daniel E.; Koenen, Kiana K. G.; Whitney, Jillian J.; MacKenzie, Kenneth G.; DeStefano, Stephen

doi:10.1675/063.039.sp120

Cited by 16 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…During winter, our tagged herring gulls were often located at inland foraging locations and regularly used fresh water roosts in proximity to where they spent the day. Further, herring gulls tended to use the same general inland areas for much of the winter (Clark et al ). Ring‐billed gulls were also common inland foragers during winter; however, our study birds remained at inland areas for less time than herring gulls and often used coastal habitats during late winter.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roost site selection by ring‐billed and herring gulls

Clark¹,

DeStefano

MacKenzie³

et al. 2016

J Wildl Manag

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Gulls (Larus spp.) commonly roost in large numbers on inland and coastal waters, yet there is little information on how or where gulls choose sites for roosting. Roost site selection can lead to water quality degradation or aviation hazards when roosts are formed on water supply reservoirs or are close to airports. Harassment programs are frequently initiated to move or relocate roosting gulls but often have mixed results because gulls are reluctant to leave or keep returning. As such, knowledge of gull roost site selection and roosting ecology has applied and ecological importance. We used satellite telemetry and an information-theoretic approach to model seasonal roost selection of ring-billed (L. delawarensis) and herring gulls (L. argentatus) in Massachusetts, USA. Our results indicated that ring-billed gulls preferred freshwater roosts and will use a variety of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Herring gulls regularly roosted on fresh water but used salt water roosts more often than ring-billed gulls and also roosted on a variety of land habitats. Roost modeling showed that herring and ring-billed gulls selected inland fresh water roosts based on size of the water body and proximity to their last daytime location; they selected the largest roost closest to where they ended the day. Management strategies to reduce or eliminate roosting gulls could identify and try to eliminate other habitat variables (e.g., close-by foraging sites) that are attracting gulls before attempting to relocate or redistribute (e.g., through hazing programs) roosting birds. Ó 2016 The Wildlife Society.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roost site selection by ring‐billed and herring gulls

Clark¹,

DeStefano

MacKenzie³

et al. 2016

J Wildl Manag

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In addition to documenting trends by region, we have included papers aimed at examining some of the putative causes of Herring and Great Black-backed gull declines, including hypotheses about habitat suitability (Perlut et al 2016), prey availability (Bond 2016;Bond et al 2016;, climate change (Robertson 2016) and the effects of elevated levels of organic contaminants (de Solla et al 2016;Pekarik et al 2016). Several papers touch on a more general ecology, commenting on the nonbreeding distribution of gulls in Canada (Gjerdrum and Boldoc 2016) and the United States (Clark et al 2016), and weigh the role of gulls as predators in a changing system (Veitch et al 2016). The last section of this Special Publication concerns reports of life history and is applied to offer recommendations to field ornithologists; in particular, the effect of brood size on nestling growth (Gilliland et al 2016), spatial variation in gull morphology (Robertson et al 2016b), discriminating between eggs of Herring and Great Black-backed gulls (Diamond and Otorowski 2016) and survivorship measurements in the Great Black-backed Gull (Robertson et al 2016a) are reported.…”

Section: Case Study Comparisons: Other Regions and Other Gull Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: A Historical Perspective on Trends in Some Gulls in Eastern North America, with Reference to Other Regions

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus, if individuals were not resighted or detected, or did not return to the same location, it was unknown if they had died prior to returning, had returned but were simply not observed or detected, or were not faithful to previously used sites. The recent use of satellite transmitters equipped with GPS capabilities has made it possible to more accurately determine individual site fidelity (García-Ripollés et al 2010;Clark et al 2016). Fidelity to winter sites can be an important metric, because identification of sites that are used faithfully by a significant portion of a population should be a priority for habitat conservation (Wilson et al 1991;Warkentin and Hernández 1996).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%