fneil

On the ferry to Lamma Island this morning from Central I was surprised to see large gulls flying by the ferry in the direction of Central.  I can't recall seeing them there before.  I thought they might be just flying by but when I came back about 2 hours later they were still hanging around and diving for fish.
Is this a normal occurrence?
Sorry about the quality of the video
https://vimeo.com/88646383
Neil.
10 March 2014

kmike

This has been a terrific winter for gulls in and around the harbour Neil. Your birds (at least the closer ones, look like Heuglin's Gulls to me

• There have been around 30 Black-tailed Gulls loafing not he islet opposite the Disney pier in Discovery Bay for at least 2 weeks and I've seen up to 10 of both Black-tailed and Heuglin's Gulls all the way into the ferry piers over the last couple of days.

• I understand Paul Leader also had 200 south of Lantau on Saturday and

• Martin Williams had his first ever Black-tailed Gulls of Cheung Chau at the weekend as well.

• I have also had Heuglin's, Black-headed and Black-tailed Gulls from my sea watch point at the Magic Roundabout and even had a Heuglin's Gull flying across the golf course last week.

• 3 weeks ago I also had 50-odd Black-headed Gulls off Tai O

A look back at the Avifauna associates gulls away from Mai Po with the presence of sewage in the harbour and Lamma Channel. I wonder if there's something we don't know . . .

Please do post any more records of gulls away from Deep Bay that I have missed.

Cheers
Mike

[ Last edited by kmike at 10/03/2014 22:08 ]

Jonathmartinez

during a 4 days trip to Xitou SW Guangdong last week, about 200 Kms west of HK, I've had a great group of Large Gull including : 455 BT Gull ( a new record count for Guangdong province incl HK and MC), about 250 Heuglin's Gull, 2 Vega Gull,15 Mongolian Gull, at least 2 Vega Gull, a 1stW Slaty-backed Gull, a 1stW Glaucous-winged Gull and an adult Pallas's Gull. But no one Black-headed Gull that seems to not appreciate the presence of the Large Gull there....

wcaptain

Gulls were used to be common around the western part of the Harbour up to the reclamation for the new airport in the mid 1990s. But appeared to be absence after the reclamation.

I also saw some gulls around the western part (Dr Sun Yat Sin park/Fire station) when took 968 in this winter.

irsychan

Could this be due to the improvement of water quality in the harbour in recent years?
I heard that corals are found in Victoria Harbour and in Junk Bay.  May be the marine ecology has improved and therefore attracted more sea birds?

wgeoff

Although this is obviously a good early spring for gulls in general, this has happened before, in particular for Black-tailed Gull which is probably the most significant 'variable peak count' species.

Black-tailed Gull is a regular early spring migrant in southern and eastern waters as well as winter visitor to Deep Bay, but the numbers reported are usually below 50. However, in some years they can be reported in hundreds, as this chart of peak counts by year from 1980 to 2012 shows



Heuglin's Gull tends to be more consistent, although this may be because most Heuglin's high counts are as winter visitors to Deep Bay rather than spring passage migrants to more remote areas as most Black-tailed Gull high counts are.



So I'm not sure this is a recent phenomenon or just another good year for Black-tailed and Heuglin's.

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 11/03/2014 14:35 ]

lun9394

今日係維港同長洲影既, 係咪 HEUGLIN' GULL?

kmike

Many thanks for this background Geoff.
Since the focus for this thread is birds away from Deep Bay it would be interesting to strip the Deep Bay records out and see what these charts look like.

Is this possible - at least for the peak B-t Gull years?

Cheers
Mike

PS the last two pix are of juvenile Black-tailed Gulls.

[ Last edited by kmike at 11/03/2014 23:56 ]

wgeoff

Yes Mike, it's possible for Black-tailed Gull - all the peak counts are away from Deep Bay.

Avifauna states the peak counts for Black-tailed Gull in years 1975, 1976 (before my graph but given as Fig 191, page 261 in Avifauna) and 1985 were in Tolo Harbour/Starling Inlet. The peak count in 2003 was at Sham Chung and in 2012 was at Po Toi. All were in the February/March period except 70 at Tai Po in January 1976.

Black-tailed Gull is a much more widespread coastal species in early spring (and some peak counts may go unrecorded because they occur in locations that are not well-watched areas).
It's much more difficult to strip Deep Bay out of Heuglin's Gull, but I think almost all the peak counts for Heuglin's Gull were in Deep Bay at various times during the winter.

Later - I can confirm that the four highest counts for Heuglin's Gull since 1999, in years 2000, 2002, 2009 and 2010 (see the graph above) were all in Deep Bay, two in January and one each in February and early March.

Geoff

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 12/03/2014 08:23 ]

ajohn

I think it's a generalisation to say that gulls are winter visitors to Deep Bay but spring migrants to the rest of HK. The peak counts in Deep Bay are usually also in early spring - February and March. This may be because there are more suitable tides at these times so birds are easier to count, but I suspect it could equally reflect a peak in abundance at this time (certainly there seems to have been increasing numbers in the last few weeks). there is a good chance that a high proportion of gulls in Deep Bay are also spring migrants.