Great Black-backed Gulls

Great Black-backed gulls are very large gulls, a bit bigger than Herring gulls. They have white heads BUT BLACK wings and mantle instead of grey. It is a boldly handsome gull.

(This photo, BTW, is taken from the new Richard Crossley guide to eastern birds.)

It was the first day of spring yesterday, but it felt like the day before Thanksgiving. Today was worse with a spitting cold rain from the east. I did have a lot of bird activity at the feeders today which helps make working less onerous since I sit by the window and can constantly watch what's going on. The feeders birds are a colorful bunch: house finches, chickadees, nuthatches, blue jays, cardinals, goldfinch, red-bellied, hairy and downy woodpeckers, tufted titmice, doves, juncos...

About 7 p.m. I decided to check out Chippewa Point which is a small peninsula surrounded by shallow water about a mile from the west end of Lake Macatawa. Many gulls and sometimes swans and ducks return here to spend the night. All last week, I kept seeing two Great Black-backed gulls (GBBG) there mixed in with hundreds of Ring-billed and Herring gulls, the gulls one usually sees in Michigan. One evening, a GBBG was sitting on what ice remained, quite far out, a striking black-backed bird on white ice and very noticeable even from a distance.

Tonight it was stormy and the gulls were dynamic! They would rise off the water, move upwards a little and then come back down, over and over, and it looked like they were bouncing off the water. They would fly up a bit, hang motionless in the air and then be blown backwards by the wind. I immediately saw the two GBBGs, one of which was near shore, standing in the shallow water close enough to see its pinkish legs. Both of them suddenly flew off, staying close together, their black wings lovely against the stormy sky, the white trailing edge very visible. They disappeared but were back a few minutes later.

Rain from the east was driving against the windshield but the gulls were mesmerizing, the whole scene just a flurry of wings and hard rain and choppy water. I watched quite awhile in my warm car. And then I saw a third GBB gull! These birds are not very common in Michigan, so it is exciting to be able to see them several days in a row. Maria and Richard stayed here last night but we ate too late to get out there before dark. Now I wish we had just gone earlier so they could have seen them, as it's only a couple miles from my house.

They breed up around Newfoundland and Labrador, so I expect they soon will be leaving.