By Lynette Williams Duman

There is no better cure for the winter blues than looking at birds, and there is no better group of birds to look at in the winter than gulls. In California, winter is the time of massive gull flocks that will commute between landfills, beaches, rice fields, reservoirs, and rivers. No matter where you are, odds are that there will be a gull nearby.

Take the Heermann’s Gull (Larus heermanni), who, instead of following the expected winter migration south with its avian compatriots, chooses to move north in the winter and delights coastal Californians from San Diego to Mendocino (and beyond!), but rarely ventures inland.  

Or consider the adventurous Bonaparte’s Gull (Chroicocephalus philadelphia; named for Napoleon’s ornithologist nephew, Charles). They charm us in winter with their acrobatic flight, petite stature, and gregarious nature, but in the summer, they nest arboreally (!!) in scattered spruces near bogs and lakes in far northern Canada and Alaska. 

We also get rare visitors to our coast in the winter. The Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus), a species most commonly found in the Old World, has become an infrequent winter invader in California. If you have the pleasure of scanning through a flock of gulls, keep your eyes peeled for rarities, like this individual (Figure 1) from the Davis Landfill in February 2022.

Sometimes there are gulls that taxonomically we are… not sure what to do with. The Short-billed Gull (Larus brachyrhynchus) was once a subspecies of Mew Gull (Larus canus; “Mew” refers to an old Dutch word for “gull” – so yes, that means they were technically called the “Gull Gull”). Mew Gull was taxonomically split in 2021 and is now two separate species: Short-billed Gull and Common Gull. This thrilled many birders, as now there are two additional (difficult to identify) gull species to find every winter!

So whether you are gull-curious or a fully-fledged lariphile, keep an eye out for our beautiful, enigmatic winter visitors.

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About the Author

Lynette Williams Duman is a PhD Candidate in the Aquatic Research Collective (ARC) at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, where she studies multi-benefit tidal restoration. You can often find her at the landfill looking at gulls.

Burger, J. and M. Gochfeld (2020). Bonaparte’s Gull (Chroicocephalus philadelphia), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bongul.01

Burger, J., M. Gochfeld, G. M. Kirwan, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana (2020). Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.lbbgul.01

Islam, K. and E. Velarde (2020). Heermann’s Gull (Larus heermanni), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (P. G. Rodewald and B. K. Keeney, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.heegul.02

Moskoff, W. and L. R. Bevier (2021). Short-billed Gull (Larus brachyrhynchus), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.mewgul2.01.1

* As always, but especially during “12 Days of CWS,” we’d love to hear from our readers too! Whether you’ve been part of CWS before or just love observing the seasons, appreciating a nice lake, or have your own naturalist adventures, drop us a comment below. Share with us a surprising nature encounter, your favorite aquatic species, or a bit of mischief – someone else might nod along and share a smile! We’re excited to share “12 Days of CWS” with you, and for you to be a part of it too!