Larus canus

The mew gull is found throughout the northern hemisphere in Europe, Asia, north Africa and North America. Utah State University graduate students Ryan O'Donnell and Stephanie Cobbold found a first-winter mew gull at the Fisheries Experiment Station in Logan. This is only the second record of a mew gull in Cache County and the first since 1991.

A mew gull also was recently spotted at the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area.

Mew gulls flourish in and along coastal ranges, tidal estuaries, interior lakes and marshy grasslands.

Gulls are aged by their molt, which changes its appearance until adult plumage is attained at 27 months. Young gulls, like the gull in Logan, have a brown plumage that is spotted with tan. The beak is dark and the legs are slender, yellowish-green with webbed feet.

Adult gulls have gray wings and back with a plain white head and a greenish-yellow bill.

Mew gulls are successful opportunistic feeders. Adept survival skills include flying and dropping clams repeatedly onto a hard surface until the shell is cracked. The food of choice is fish.

When food is scarce, gulls will resort to cannibalism, eating a large number of hatchlings and younger birds.

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* BILL FENIMORE is owner of the Layton Wild Bird Center (www.wild bird.com/layton). A free bird walk is planned March 8 to see migrating tundra swans at Farmington Bay, leaving the Wild Bird Center at 10 a.m. Call 801-525-8400 to register.