Herring Gull Family Reunion?

For the past three years we have been lucky enough to watch herring gulls rearing chicks on the neighbour's chimney. This year the chicks were all fledged about 3 weeks ago (one fledged a bit earlier and we were worried about it). The chimney seemed very empty and we saw no sight of adults or fledged chicks. Then yesterday 2 adults landed on the roof and then 2 juvenile gulls (still showing some speckled feathers but looking much smarter) landed on the nest chimney - with another juvenile circling nearby. They all called to each other and the juveniles nuzzled up to each other on the nest site and made clucking sounds. It seemed very much like a family reunion. We haven't seen this before - is it something herring gulls are known to do?
  • Hi Hazel

    I've no personal experience of this but it sounds a plausible scenario. Certainly Black-headed Gulls can be quite clingy often pestering their parents for food when they are perfectly capable of fending for themselves. I guess the juvenile/parent bond exists for a while after fledging even if they are nominally independent.

  • Sounds like the juveniles were food begging - and the parents would have chased off any chicks they hadn't raised so I think you're correct in saying they're a family.  I've seen at least one situation where an immature herring gull (almost a year old) was chasing an adult for food, and the adult wasn't at all hostile - in fact it was scuttling away with a look on its face that suggested it wished it could abruptly be somewhere else!  The family bond clearly lasts a while with these birds.

  • Juvenile herring gulls often hang around with their parents for as long as possible after fledging. In my local colony last year, all migrated in mid-September, up until which point the juveniles were still mostly with their parents and obtaining food from them. The adults returned in mid-November minus their offspring! In town, where the gulls didn't migrate, I noticed that one “chick” stayed with his (I’m guessing he because he was massive, and males are generally larger than females) parents for almost a full year, until the next breeding season started!

    The clucking sound you refer to is probably “choking”, which is a territorial call to defend their nest area.

  • Interesting, I've been wondering about this too. We have a breeding pair in the area, they've produced 2-3 babies each year for a couple of years. Most years the juveniles would leave or be chased off after a couple of months. However, this year, the babes are hanging around a lot longer. One parent occasionally chases them off, whereas I saw the other still giving food to one just a week ago! It seems odd that it's December and I can still hear juvenile squeaks on the roof as they beg/bother their parents for food.
    They also do not migrate in this area and are permanent residents all year round, I don't know if that makes a difference.