Gulls gather, add action to wetlands

WATERVILLE – Waterfowl migration is lagging a bit, perhaps due to the warm fall they’ve enjoyed to our north. The big numbers we often see in our wetlands and waterways, like Howard Marsh Metropark and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, haven’t arrived.

Still, there’s always action to be observed in those wetlands and others, like the rapids of the Maumee River. Gulls love to gather in numbers to feed in Side Cut’s Jerome Road
rapids and Farnsworth’s Roche deBout Rapids, for example.

In this recent photo, hundreds of Bonaparte’s gulls gathered in those
rapids to feed. It’s not unusual to see large feeding flocks moving as one,
following the concentrations of forage fish, in this case probably shad.