Reproductive performance of gulls depends on a variety of factors, but food abundance and its availability are among the most important. Clutch and egg sizes in gulls are found to be strongly influenced by food availability, thus better reproductive performance in the colony with greater fish availability (near fish ponds) was expected in that study. We compared the reproductive traits (clutch size, volume of eggs in the full clutch, relative volume of the C-egg (the third egg in gull's clutches) and hatching success) of Caspian Gull Larus cachinnans in five inland colonies in Poland located at a gravel pit, a lake, a river and two dam reservoirs. Differences in the clutch size between sites were found, with the lowest at a lake. We found similar clutch volume in all studied colonies. C-eggs were slightly smaller than A- and B- eggs, in all colonies and all study years, but the relative volume of C-egg in colonies located near fish ponds (<10 km) was significantly greater compared to colonies located far away. This may be explained by high fish availability in fishponds in comparison to other habitats. However hatching success (the ratio of the number of hatched chick to the number of eggs laid) was highest in the colony at the lake. This indicates that both inland habitats a gravel pit and a lake offered good food conditions for large gulls when fish ponds are nearby.
Caspian Gull Larus cachinnans started to nest in Poland in the early 1980s. Since 1989 this species has started to nest regularly, but no complete survey of breeding population has been done so far. To describe abundance trend, we collected data on numbers and distribution of breeding Caspian Gulls until 2020 from the whole country. The census in 2021 allowed to estimate complete or near-complete breeding population at 5,554 pairs nesting in 44 places in total. Nesting sites held from 1 to 1,924 breeding pairs. About 91% of pairs bred in 9 colonies with more than 100 pairs. There were 21 nesting sites with ≤10 pairs, including 10 single-pair sites. 66% of the sites were located in southern part of the country, but increasingly more pairs started to settle in new places, including central Poland. The average annual population growth rate in 1989–2021 was estimated at 14.8% (95% confidence intervals: 12.3–17.3%); the Caspian Gull is characterized by the strongest increase among all breeding bird species in Poland. We predict that the abundance of Caspian Gulls in Poland will further increase, as many potentially suitable breeding areas are not yet colonized, particularly in the northern and western part of the country. This spectacular increase is also probably linked to multiple factors, including availability of landfills as important foraging places, which may affect high productivity and survival. The case of the Caspian Gull population increase is a good example of large-scale changes in bird populations in the period of Anthropocene in Europe.
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