Today (Tues. 4/20), in brief check of a couple of spots in Ottawa Co., n.w. Ohio, I saw two Lesser Black-backed Gulls: a third-cycle bird at the east beach at East Harbor State Park (east of Port Clinton) and a first-cycle bird at the county landfill (on Rt. 163 east of Oak Harbor). Historically, April 20 would have been a little late for multiples of the species. But of course historically they weren't here at all, with the first U.S. record dating from 1934 and the first Ohio record from 1977; the main thing that history tells us now is that we can expect to see more of these birds, more of the time. A couple of weeks ago on Ohio-birds there was some discussion of the explosive growth in the wintering population of Lesser Black-backed Gulls in North America, and speculation about the source. As most gull aficionados would agree, Iceland -- in the news recently as a source of volcanic ash -- is also probably the source for most of our Lesser Black-backs. This island nation far out in the North Atlantic had its first nesting of the species, colonizing from Europe, in 1913. The population there increased slowly and gradually for several decades, while the number of individuals visiting the North American coastline in winter also gradually increased after the first one in 1934. By the 1970s, Iceland had up to 10,000 pairs, and the species was becoming regular in North America, with one or more reaching Ohio in 1977. With continued increase since then, the breeding population in Iceland is now probably over 30,000 pairs, and eastern North America seems to have become a regular winter range for many of these birds. Lesser Black-backed Gull also has been breeding in Greenland since about 1990, and the population there is now estimated at over 700 pairs in at least two sites. While we're still waiting for a breeding record in North America, there have been some "half-records." A lone Lesser Black-back mated with a Herring Gull in southeast Alaska (!) in 1993. In 2007, a Lesser Black-back appeared in a Herring Gull colony on Appledore Island, Maine, and mated with one of the local birds. Apparently the same individual returned in 2008, and this time it was captured and banded with a field-readable band, "F05," so we know that definitely the same individual returned to Appledore in summer 2009 (again mating with a Herring Gull, raising two hybrid offspring). Remarkably, birders found this individual wintering at Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, in the winters of 2008-2009 and 2009-2010, establishing F05 as a gull celebrity, watched by the paparazzi at both ends of its migratory route. The saga of Lesser Black-backed Gull in North America has been fascinating so far, and I'm sure there are more chapters to come. Kenn Kaufman Oak Harbor, Ohio ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]