After seeing 150 Ring-billed Gulls fly over Liberty University in
Lynchburg Tuesday morning in the course of ten minutes I decided to do a
more extended count on Wednesday (2/3), choosing a quiet parking lot on
campus that has a good view to the north over town (a small ridge
borders the SE edge of campus). From 8-10 AM I counted just over 900
Ring-billed Gulls, which is a good count for our area. Previous morning
counts I've done in February and March 2001 and 2002 have occasionally
yielded close to 400 birds, but I had never tried from a vantage point
with such an extended view of the horizon. But after a count of 110
Ring-billeds on our winter bird count last December, mostly at the
Lynchburg landfill, numbers in the area seem to have already increased
with early spring movement. I used to think these birds flying over
Lynchburg in the morning were migrants, until I saw them at the end of
the day flying in the opposite direction (SW), and realized they were
probably headed for the landfill in the morning, probably coming from
Smith Mountain Lake which is about 40 miles away, and returning there to
roost in the evening.
Brown-headed Cowbirds continue in Lynchburg in larger winter numbers
than normal since mid-January, as I continue to see them in the morning
as they apparently disperse from a roost, probably near River Ridge
Mall, and pass over our neighborhood; one evening before dark I was out
and saw some headed back in the opposite direction towards the mall
area. The largest number I've seen in the morning was about 320 on Jan
26. On our Lynchburg December winter bird count we rarely see more than
20 cowbirds, with the exception of from 1962-1973 when there was a large
winter blackbird roost in the area.
Gene Sattler
Lynchburg
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