[va-bird] Ring-billed Gulls moving [Lynchburg]

The spring-like conditions of warm temperatures and southerly air flow ahead
of the coming cold front had Ring-billed Gulls moving through Lynchburg this
morning.  I noted two kettles totaling about 70 at 7:20 AM, and then in
about 40 minutes of watching saw smaller groups of from 2 to 25 for another
80 or so, for a total of 149.  I noticed a similar phenomenon last spring,
when on March 1st I counted 350 in less than an hour from the same location
and time of day.  In both instances birds came through in groups from the
southwest, stopping occasionally to kettle together like hawks, then
continued flying towards the northeast, at a moderate altitude that makes
them easy to miss.  The birds were flying parallel to Candler Mountain,
which is part of a small ridge system, one of the last of the foothills of
the Blue Ridge, that extends up from Smith Mountain Lake and beyond
Lynchburg to the northeast.  Late February/early March seems to mark the
beginning of the gulls' spring arrival in these parts, just after the Common
Grackles move back in to occupy their breeding territories around town in
mid to late February.  However, in some years we have the gulls here during
the winter, typically found hanging out at the dump; where else?

Gene Sattler
Lynchburg 
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