The mission today was to visit the north end of the Oak Street Bridge to determine how many nesting gulls I could find there. I was expecting to find a lot – there are a lot of large gravel rooftops located right beside the north arm of the Fraser River.
Pedestrian On-ramp
Most of the area around the bridge is comprised of heartless industrial buildings and run-down apartments. The sidewalk leading onto the bridge betrays how little it is used by pedestrians.
The morning was unsettled and shifting with occasional light rain falling followed by the sun breaking through. Walking the empty sidewalks in the early morning, I try and understand why I’m so drawn to this rather niche interest of documenting these gull nests. But that’s something I’ll take on in another post…
Cambie Nest
The Cambie pair hanging out at the nest site. In previous years this is the nest where I’ve seen the earliest chicks. Let’s see if it holds true this year.
Today marked the first day of my gull nest monitoring for the 2024 season.
Well, not really – I’ve checked on some of the nests close to my workplace a few times in the last handful of weeks. But this morning I brought my camera and walked almost the entire route, checking in on a majority of the nesting locations I’ve discovered in the previous two years.
For those of you who followed along last year, I’m using the same names for all the nests. While I can’t be compeltely certain, these are probably the same pairs of gulls using the sites, as the research I’ve read suggests these gulls have strong site fidelity1, also known as breeding philopatry.