Heermann's Gulls Return to Monterey Bay

Don Roberson in his excellent book "Monterey Birds" tells us that Heermann's Gulls do not breed in this area but migrate about 850 miles south to a small island (Isla Rasa) in Baja California each year and begin arriving back in this area in mid-June. Arriving gulls continue until there are thousands present from mid-July through November. Heermann's Gulls are strictly coastal and are rarely seen inland or more than a few miles offshore.

Our local expert, Brian Weed comments that I missed one of the local remarkable facts about Heermann's Gulls which I excerpt directly from Don Roberson's book. "Three pairs of Heermann's Gulls nested on two tiny man-made islets in Roberts Lake, Seaside, CA, beginning in 1999. Eight young were fledged in July 1999 and another eight in July 2000, but nesting failed in summer 2001. This tiny colony is the only one in the United States, and the 1999 fledglings represented the first successful nesting ever recorded of Heermann's Gull north of Mexico."

I also found a YouTube video of Isla Rasa that describes that it is the breeding ground for Elegant Terns and Heermann's Gulls. The video gives a nice perspective on the two breeding colonies Here.

Wikipedia always has excellent information on the local birds and we again read that there are very few Heermann's Gulls that "winter-over" on the Monterey Peninsula. Although we checked this location a week ago and didn't see any Heermann's Gulls - there were many to be seen today. You can find more complete information on the Heermann's Gull on Wikipedia Here.

This individual looks like he might have just completed his "trek" from Isla Rasa off Baja California in the Gulf of Mexico. It is certainly nice to see them returning but they usually look far more healthy than this individual. They will keep us company along the Monterey Bay shore from now through November. We saw perhaps a dozen or more birds from our fixed location today, many were in the kelp beds offshore and we did see a few more on their usual perches on the coastal rocks.

This is the same individual on one of the nearby rocks. We expect the population to "fill out" in the days ahead as this "ruffled" appearance isn't typical. We usually see them far more healthy looking.

The shot below isn't particularly good but it does show a group of Heermann's Gulls in the kelp beds maybe a half mile offshore. Today, we were using the Nikon D7000 with a 300mm f4 lens and a new Nikon 2x teleconverter. This is one of the the first times we have used this combination and haven't been disappointed with this configuration. It focuses well (in good light like today) although Nikon reports that they do not recommend this configuration. This shot is cropped and sharpened moderately.

We were also treated to this pair of Western Gulls that were chattering along the Rec. Trail rocks. We see the Western Gull throughout the winter and they are reported to breed at over 45 different sites along the Big Sur coast from Carmel Bay South. The Western Gull is strictly limited to coastal saltwater, moving inland only a few miles along the tidal Elkhorn Slough. Don Roberson tells us on page 230 of his book that Western Gulls are also scarce beyond 30 miles offshore.

It is nice to have our Heermann's friends return and now we can look forward to seeing them throughout the summer until they head south once again for Baja California in November.