Range Expansion of the Glaucous-Winged Gull Into Interior United States and Canada
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WESTERN BIRDS Volume 26, Number 4, 1995 RANGE EXPANSION OF THE GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL INTO INTERIOR UNITED STATES AND CANADA LAURENCE C. BINFORD, HCR-01, Box 164, EagleHarbor, Michigan49950 DAVID B. JOHNSON, 504 Crown Point Drive, Buffalo Grove, Illinois 60089 Historically, the Glaucous-wingedGull (Larus glaucescens)has been consideredan almoststrictly coastal species in North America, only occa- sionallystraying very far inland. It breedsalong the Pacificcoast and on nearbyinland lakes from Alaskasouth to northwesternOregon and winters from the Bering Sea south to southernBaja Californiaand the Gulf of California (A.O.U. 1983, Verbeek 1993). In the most recent monograph on the species,Verbeek (1993) consideredthis speciesregular in small numbersin Sonora, casualin winter in easternWashington, Idaho, Mon- tana, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and centralCalifornia, casualin migra- tion in Alberta, and accidentalin Yukon, Manitoba, and Oklahoma. Verbeek(1993) gaveno informationon historicalchanges in distribution. Muchearlier, however, the specieshad beenshown to havespread in winter from the coast inland along the Columbia River system into eastern Washington(LaFave 1965) and adjacentOregon [e.g., American Birds (AB) 29:91, 1974]. Fischer (1988) and Tove and Fischer (1988) believed that recordsfor Utah in the mid 1980s representedthe beginningof expansionof the winter range into the easternGreat Basin. Here we extendthe studyof the Glaucous-wingedGull's inland expansion to all interior western statesand provinces(except Yukon) and, lesscom- pletely, to inland portionsof Pacificcoastal states and provinces(except Alaska).Our data considerablymodify the species'status in some of the regionslisted by Verbeek(1993) and add Saskatchewan,eastern Oregon, Nevada, southeasternCalifornia, Colorado, and Illinoisto his range. We presentevidence for a recent, ongoing,potentially widespread and perma- nent rangeexpansion into the interiorof westernNorth America.We also discussfactors that may accountfor this spread and compare them to dispersaltheory. WesternBirds 26:169-188, 1995 169 RANGE EXPANSION OF GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL METHODS We thoroughlysearched Audubon Field Notes, American Birds, and National Audubon Society Field Notes from 1950 through 1993. We contactedlocal authorities(see Acknowledgments for names)and records committeesin all statesand provinceswest of the MississippiRiver and some to the east, as well as museumsknown to house inland Glaucous- wingedGull specimens. We reviewedstate and provincialmonographs, but reliedon our contactsto providelocal publications not otherwiseavailable to us. INLAND EXPANSION In the followingdiscussion, each individualis consideredone "record"; see the Appendix for details and citations. The terms "vagrancy"and "vagrant"are usedloosely for individualsoccurring inland from thisspecies' "normal"Pacific coast range. Interior Records We have accumulated97 records for interior states and provinces, distributedas follows:Nevada (28, two of which were seen alsoin Arizona), Idaho (23), Utah (14), Alberta (14), Arizona (5, includingtwo seen also in Nevada), Colorado (5), Montana (4), New Mexico (2), Saskatchewan(1), Manitoba(1), Oklahoma(1), and Illinois(1). Althoughsome of theserecords may representmisidentifications (see caveat in Appendix), nine are sup- portedby specimens,at least 19 by photos,and eight by archivedwritten descriptionsaccepted by recordscommittees, so the species'occurrence inland is well documented.We also have many recordsfrom inland loca- tions in coastalstates and provinces;these are too numerousto list in the Appendix, but some are cited in the text. Accordingto local authorities,the specieshas not been reported in Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana,Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ontario, South Dakota, Texas, or Wyoming. Documentationsfor Michigan and North Dakota records have not been acceptedby state records committees. History of Winter Expansion The earliest record for interior states and provinceswas in 1912 at Capron, Oklahoma. Thus vagrancy is not entirely recent. No further recordswere forthcominguntil the mid 1950s, with singlebirds collected alongthe ColoradoRiver in Arizona in 1954 and 1956. [Additionalreports from Coloradoin 1956 (twosightings), Montana in 1955, andNew Mexico in 1954 and 1955 were duringthis same early period;although these are not acceptedby us or by regional authorities,neither have they been formallyrejected by recordscommittees.] This early period of vagrancy continuedslowly, with sightingsat Bear Lake, Alberta,in 1958 and 1959, near St. Paul, Alberta, in 1960, at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in 1963 and 1965, at Churchill,Manitoba, in 1964 (June),and at Valleyview,Alberta, in 170 RANGE EXPANSION OF GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL 1966, bringingto 10 the numberof individualsaccepted for inlandstates and provincesprior to 1971. Significantly,the Glaucous-wingedGull beganto invadeeastern Wash- ingtonduring the sameearly period,occurring first in the PotholesReser- voir region on 22 April and 4 May 1954 (adults;Weber 1981), the same year as in Arizona,and then at Spokanefrom 5 to 28 February1956 Ithree birdsphotographed; Audubon Field Notes (AFN) 10:268; LaFave 1965], on 9 February 1957 (AFN 11:282; LaFave 1965), on 16 February1961 (two immatures:AFN 15:346: LaFave 1965), and on 27 January 1962 (AFN 16:351 ). Meanwhile, the speciesbegan to be seen along the ColumbiaRiver in southeasternWashington (e.g., an adult at O'Sullivan Dam, 16 January 1959: LaFave 1965 ). About 1971 vagrancyseems to havebegun slowly escalating (Figure 1). Nevadarecorded its first Glaucous-wingedGulls in 1971, and one to four were seen each winter through 1977-78• Thereaftercame a near hiatus (onlysix birds), probably due to poor coverageor non-reporting.Beginning in 1991-92, however,from one to threehave been recorded annually. In Idaho, after the two initial sightingsin 1963 and 1965, the specieswas Winter Season(years) Figure1. Annualdistribution of individualGlaucous-winged Gulls (n -- 93) in interior statesand provincesduring winters 1952-53 to 1993-94. FiveJune-August records were placedin the previouswinten 171 RANGE EXPANSION OF GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL recordedonly five times until 1986-87. Since then it has been of nearly annualoccurrence, with five individualsin 1993-94. In Alberta, where this gull is only a transient,escalation seems to havestarted in the early 1980s. As would be expectedin an expandingspecies, areas farther from the Pacificcoast had their firstsin later years:Colorado, 1981; Utah, 1983; Montana, 1985; New Mexico, 1990; Saskatchewan,1991; Illinois, 1992. Fischer(1988) suggestedthat the nine birds recordedin the winters of 1984-85 and 1985-86 aroundGreat Salt Lake, Utah, represented"a real changein status"and "the beginningof expansionof the winter rangeinto the easternGreat Basin." The firstrecords for southeasternOregon, where habitat and observersare scarce,were at Farewell Bend, Malheur Co., 16 November1987 and at MalheurNational Wildlife Refuge, 19 December 1988 (Gilliganet al. 1994 ). Far to the south,small numbers have occurred with some regularityat PuertoPefiasco, Sonora, sinceabout 1982, when sevenwere seen on 12 February(AB 36:319; S.M. Russellin litt.) Meanwhile,in easternWashington and adjacentOregon, the specieshad becomea regularwinter visitorby the winter of 1974-75 (AB 27:797, 29:718; Weber 1981), aboutthe sametime it reappearedin Idaho after a nine-year absence.For example, 10 were at Umatitla, Oregon, on 23 November1974 (AB 29:91). This patternhas continued, for exampl.e,with eight birds at Pasco, Washington, and two at nearby Richland on 4 December 1985 (AB 40:305), until today the speciesnot only receives relativelylittle noticein winterbut hasbeen termed "common"along some sectionsof the ColumbiaRiver in easternOregon (Gilligan et al. 1994 ). The Glaucous-wingedGull appears to be on the increasealso in far inland California.The first recordwe can find for the Central Valley was of an immature at Sacramento 9-20 December 1969 (AB 24:535). Thereafter the specieswas rarely reported until fall 1985, when 14 were found (AB 40:330). At least 11 were presentin the winter of 1986-87 (AB 41:224) and eight in 1987-88 (AB 42:316), bringingthe total to at least51 in 19 years(AB). It now occursannually in suchnumbers that it no longerreceives notice in American Birds/National Audubon Society Field Notes (NASFN). This speciesseems to be increasingalso at its only other regular far-inlandCalifornia locality, the SaltonSea, wherea minimumof 74 birds havebeen found, mostly in late winterand spring,and it hasbeen reported duringall but three yearssince spring 1965 (AB; Garrettand Dunn 1981). We doubtthat coverageof the SaltonSea hasimproved much in the last30 years,yet after 18 winterswhen no more than threewere seenin one year, 10 appearedin 1982-83 as the resultof a fish die-off(AB 37:338), five in 1989-90 (AB 44:329), and 10 in 1993-94 (NASFN 48:248). Elsewhere in the far interiorof the state,we note the followingSiskiyou Co. localities and years of occurrence(AB): Tule Lake (1977, 1991), Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge (1983), and Yreka (1989). There are also four recordsfrom the California side of Lake Tahoe (9 January 1962, AFN 16:361; 20 December 1972, AB 26:651; 17 January 1975, AB 29:727; and 26 November1975, AB 30:121) and one from BridgeportReservoir, Mono Co. (20 June 1987, AB 42:1337), a Great Basinoutpost only about 37 milesfrom a Nevadarecord at Walker Lake. Althoughthese California data may, as suggestedfor the CentralValley, "reflectobserver