I know i’m lazy asking this here.

Lots of silver gulls at Echuca, which is far from the coast. So not a species dependent on salt water.

Made me wonder. Are they commonly found all along the Murray? What about the Darling?

Would they migrate following the rains into central Australia like a lot of other Australian birds?

mollwollfumble said:

I know i’m lazy asking this here.

Lots of silver gulls at Echuca, which is far from the coast. So not a species dependent on salt water.

Made me wonder. Are they commonly found all along the Murray? What about the Darling?

Would they migrate following the rains into central Australia like a lot of other Australian birds?

They migrate to new council waste landfill sites. It is the KiSS principle.

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

I know i’m lazy asking this here.

Lots of silver gulls at Echuca, which is far from the coast. So not a species dependent on salt water.

Made me wonder. Are they commonly found all along the Murray? What about the Darling?

Would they migrate following the rains into central Australia like a lot of other Australian birds?

They migrate to new council waste landfill sites. It is the KiSS principle.

This. We had them in Wagga in the 1950’s, when I was a young kid. They loved the tip.

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

I know i’m lazy asking this here.

Lots of silver gulls at Echuca, which is far from the coast. So not a species dependent on salt water.

Made me wonder. Are they commonly found all along the Murray? What about the Darling?

Would they migrate following the rains into central Australia like a lot of other Australian birds?

They migrate to new council waste landfill sites. It is the KiSS principle.

Though it is also true that birds of coastal estuaries do travel inland. It is also true that there is no shortage of salt out here.

Michael V said:

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

I know i’m lazy asking this here.

Lots of silver gulls at Echuca, which is far from the coast. So not a species dependent on salt water.

Made me wonder. Are they commonly found all along the Murray? What about the Darling?

Would they migrate following the rains into central Australia like a lot of other Australian birds?

They migrate to new council waste landfill sites. It is the KiSS principle.

This. We had them in Wagga in the 1950’s, when I was a young kid. They loved the tip.

Yeah. It has been demonstraed wherever there is a tip.

roughbarked said:

Michael V said:

roughbarked said:

They migrate to new council waste landfill sites. It is the KiSS principle.

This. We had them in Wagga in the 1950’s, when I was a young kid. They loved the tip.

Yeah. It has been demonstrated wherever there is a tip.

Probably looking to pick up discarded fush ‘n chups, being silver gulls from across the Tasman.

roughbarked said:

Michael V said:

roughbarked said:

They migrate to new council waste landfill sites. It is the KiSS principle.

This. We had them in Wagga in the 1950’s, when I was a young kid. They loved the tip.

Yeah. It has been demonstraed wherever there is a tip.

This is weird, looking up the distribution map on https://bie.ala.org.au/species/NZOR-4-123440

What’s weird is that the silver gull knows exactly where the state boundaries are. It fills the whole of outback NSW but stops almost completely at the boundaries. For example being missing from at least 95% of country Victoria.

Nah, i don’t believe it.

mollwollfumble said:

roughbarked said:

Michael V said:

This. We had them in Wagga in the 1950’s, when I was a young kid. They loved the tip.

Yeah. It has been demonstraed wherever there is a tip.

This is weird, looking up the distribution map on https://bie.ala.org.au/species/NZOR-4-123440

What’s weird is that the silver gull knows exactly where the state boundaries are. It fills the whole of outback NSW but stops almost completely at the boundaries. For example being missing from at least 95% of country Victoria.

Nah, i don’t believe it.

Think about it. How many tips border oon the state boundaries?

LOL at that “distribution” map. sheesh.

ChrispenEvan said:

LOL at that “distribution” map. sheesh.

Wherever someone is eating chips.;)

mollwollfumble said:

roughbarked said:

Michael V said:

This. We had them in Wagga in the 1950’s, when I was a young kid. They loved the tip.

Yeah. It has been demonstraed wherever there is a tip.

This is weird, looking up the distribution map on https://bie.ala.org.au/species/NZOR-4-123440

What’s weird is that the silver gull knows exactly where the state boundaries are. It fills the whole of outback NSW but stops almost completely at the boundaries. For example being missing from at least 95% of country Victoria.

Nah, i don’t believe it.

Ah, got it. It’s not Larus novaehollandiae, it’s Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae on the ALA website.

https://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:60221177-d785-44e5-9adb-a7914a148e3f

The distribution only closely follows the lower Murray and doesn’t follow the Darling at all. As you’ve said, it probably most closely follows the town dumps.

Which suggests that the distribution of Silver Gulls has expanded enormously as a result of human intervention. But when?

mollwollfumble said:

mollwollfumble said:

roughbarked said:

Yeah. It has been demonstraed wherever there is a tip.

This is weird, looking up the distribution map on https://bie.ala.org.au/species/NZOR-4-123440

What’s weird is that the silver gull knows exactly where the state boundaries are. It fills the whole of outback NSW but stops almost completely at the boundaries. For example being missing from at least 95% of country Victoria.

Nah, i don’t believe it.

Ah, got it. It’s not Larus novaehollandiae, it’s Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae on the ALA website.

https://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:60221177-d785-44e5-9adb-a7914a148e3f

The distribution only closely follows the lower Murray and doesn’t follow the Darling at all. As you’ve said, it probably most closely follows the town dumps.

Which suggests that the distribution of Silver Gulls has expanded enormously as a result of human intervention. But when?

Probably started on the tank stream?

Hmm. The ALA has “observation date”. First reliable observation dates in atlas are:

1867 – Adelaide
1874 – Barrier Reef. Northern part
1875 – Kangaroo Is
1876 – Melbourne
1881 – Torres Str Is
1885 – King Is

Hmm, that’s totally useless in determining what the distribution was like pre-white-settlement or how rapidly they colonised the interior of Australia.

mollwollfumble said:

Hmm. The ALA has “observation date”. First reliable observation dates in atlas are:

1867 – Adelaide
1874 – Barrier Reef. Northern part
1875 – Kangaroo Is
1876 – Melbourne
1881 – Torres Str Is
1885 – King Is

Hmm, that’s totally useless in determining what the distribution was like pre-white-settlement or how rapidly they colonised the interior of Australia.

And you are only now learning this?

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

Hmm. The ALA has “observation date”. First reliable observation dates in atlas are:

1867 – Adelaide
1874 – Barrier Reef. Northern part
1875 – Kangaroo Is
1876 – Melbourne
1881 – Torres Str Is
1885 – King Is

Hmm, that’s totally useless in determining what the distribution was like pre-white-settlement or how rapidly they colonised the interior of Australia.

And you are only now learning this?

Yes. It wasn’t until i saw a roadsign “4** km Flock of Gulls” on the Hume Hwy in NSW north of Tarcutta a fortnight ago that i started wondering how far i would actually have to drive south to see a flock of gulls.

I’ve always taken gulls for granted, they’re just always there wherever i’ve lived, which has always been on the coast. It hadn’t occurred to me that no-one knows when theybpenetrated into the inland.

The oldest gull fossils in Australia are 23 or 24 million years old from Lake Pinpa in South Australia. The climate has changed a lot since then.