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Lake Champlain Colonial Waterbird Database Project

Lake Champlain Colonial Waterbird Database Project
Ring-billed Gull

Ring-billed Gulls (Larus delawarensis) have the largest breeding populations of all the colonial nesting waterbirds on Lake Champlain. This medium sized gull nests on several islands in both Vermont and New York. The largest colonies are on Vermont's Young Island and New York's Four Brothers Islands. Other nesting islands include Popasquash, Rock (St. Albans), Rock (Panton), and Mud. The Ring-billed Gull was first documented nesting on Lake Champlain in 1949 with its numbers increasing dramatically during the 1970's. The Ring-billed Gull Population on Lake Champlain has leveled off in recent years.

Ring-billed Gulls are managed under federal permit on a number of islands where they nest or have attempted to nest. Overcrowding by these gulls have been implicated in the decline of the Vermont state endangered Common Tern and as a result they are kept from nesting in tern areas on Popasquash and Rock (St. Albans) islands. Colonization of Rock (Panton) and Mud islands were successfully discouraged in the 1990's and 2000’s.

Estimated Number of Ring-billed Gull Breeding Pairs on Lake Champlain, 1951 – 2004.

Source
High Peaks Audubon Society’s annual surveys of the Four Brothers Islands, 1982- 2002.
Unpublished data. Elizabethtown, NY.