Oldest ring-billed gull on record discovered

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This past winter, Chuck Slusarczyk Jr. braved the frigid wind of Cleveland’s Wendy Park near daily to observe the thousands of gulls that congregate at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. But on one January day, among the mix of several species, he noticed a Ring-billed Gull with a metal band around its leg.  As it turned out, Slusarczyk’s gull was born in 1992 at Tommy Thompson Park, a spit of coastal habitat jutting out into Lake Ontario near downtown Toronto.

At the time, this colony was undergoing a population explosion, and researchers led by Hans Blakpoel at the Canadian Wildlife Service hoped to understand why, as well as where juvenile birds dispersed to after leaving the nest. 

Ring-billed Gulls are one of the most familiar gulls in North America due to their prevalence around dumps, parking lots, and beaches, where their bold, french fry-stealing antics have earned them a negative reputation. However, biologists know surprisingly little about the species’ longevity, due in part to a lack of data.

Discovering such an old gull might sound shocking, but there simply aren’t enough long-term demography studies on Ring-billed Gulls to gauge how strange a record like this is, says Dave Moore, senior waterbird biologist at the Canadian Wildlife Service.

https://www.audubon.org/news/oldest-ring-billed-gull-record-discovered-cleveland-birder

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Almost as ancient as me!

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