Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) is continuing to seek the public’s help to assess the health and habitat use of short-billed, glaucous-winged and California gulls in the Salish Sea (Strait of Georgia, Juan de Fuca Strait and Puget Sound).
The project titled: The Salish Sea Gull Project, is part of an ECCC marine bird monitoring and conservation program.
“The research assesses the health and habitat use of marine birds in this highly human-impacted area focusing on the movements, diets and contaminant levels of gull species in the Salish Sea,” stated the ECCC.
The project is a collaboration between ECCC and academia, led by Dr. Mark Hipfner.
“Since winter 2022 scientists have banded adult and juvenile glaucous-winged gulls along the north coast, Haida Gwaii, Metro Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia,” stated ECCC. “Researchers are investigating the movement, site fidelity [birds returning to the same location every year] and survival of these species across the Salish Sea and beyond.”
The gulls are banded with a combination of two plastic colour bands on their left legs and a plastic colour band over a metal band on their right legs.
The ECCC stated that citizen-scientist sightings and reporting have an important impact on their research.
In a 2023 report published by ECCC, scientists found that: “Our year-round tracking data suggest that glaucous-winged gulls have relatively fixed migration strategies. The majority of tagged gulls remain in the Salish Sea throughout the year.”
However, ECCC scientists were surprised by two glaucous-winged gulls that made long-distance migrations. One individual tagged in the Salish Sea travelled north to breed in Alaska in three consecutive years, while the other individual tagged in Tofino spent the summer breeding season on the west coast of Vancouver Island and wintered in California.
ECCC stated that it is continuing its banded gull tracking, and thanks to citizen scientists, have received more than 750 sightings so far.
Report sightings and complete a survey using this link:forms.office.com/r/i9PG9zHCfs.
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