Mew Gulls on the Fraser

[Gord]

There has been an incredible amount of mostly mew gulls on the Fraser River the last week. They are obviously feeding on something near the surface as they fly low over the water, stop to pick something up and then get up and fly around some more. I know sockeye and other salmon fry are migrating to the ocean now, perhaps they are after them?

[dvdk]

I think that salmon fry are a good bet - should be lots of all types in the river at this time of year. However I am wondering whether there could be eulachon coming up river that are attracting all the gulls?

I have been coming across the odd story about how the number of eulachon coming up the Fraser has declined dramatically over the last century, but I imagine that there could still be enough to provide the gulls with a good meal.

Daniel van der Kroon

[Gord]

Hi Daniel

I heard the same about the eulachon. My understanding that next to none are in the river as of yet and that they are either late or not coming. Very scary!

I was out in a boat yesterday and had a closer look at what they were doing. It seems they were picking insects off the surface as best I could tell. I saw a few insects but didnt get a chance to grab one to ID it. This may make sense as the gulls were quiet in the morning but as it warmed up, when insect hatches often take place, the gulls were out there in big flocks, easily close to 1000 birds.

I would imagine small fish would also be on the menu too provided there are any if they are not killed off by over fishing and gravel extraction.