The dump is their refuge

A truck lumbers up the hillside, backs up to the pile and releases a load of bags and junk and trash and scraps and all things inedible, unless of course, you happen to be a gull.

Then it’s dinner time and yet another smorgasbord is unleashed.

The gulls swoop and career in the air, and then go in for the pickings. A chicken bone here, a scrap of meat there. It all adds up to dinner.

The Flathead County landfill might not seem like much of a bird sanctuary, but on this day, even in a driving snowstorm, there are eight different species of gulls flying about.

“Ah, smell the garbage,” says Dan Casey of the American Bird Conservancy. Casey is the

Flathead’s resident bird expert and on this day he counts off the different species, binoculars in hand, with ease.

Identifying gulls correctly is no small task. Unlike most birds, which go from juvenile plumage to adult plumage in less than year, gulls can take several years, with plenty of molts and color variations in between. Sorting them all out is no small task, and takes an astute attention to detail.

It’s also New Year’s Day and for avid birders, it means starting species lists anew. Dyed-in-the wool birders like Casey and friend Josh Coville of Columbia Falls keep annual lists of all the birds they see through the year.

On this day a particularly rare gull for these parts is in the mix: An immature Iceland gull is flying around with the others. Blown well off course, this gull normally resides in Greenland and, as it’s name suggests, Iceland.

Will it ever rejoin its kin?

Casey says perhaps, but not until next spring, when the birds migrate north.

Some gull species, like the ring-billed gull, nest here in Montana, but many others only call the Flathead their winter home. The open waters of Flathead Lake, plus the abundance of garbage at the landfill keep them here, Casey notes.

All told, eight species have been recorded at the dump and the Iceland gull is only the third recorded sighting of that species in Montana.

The landfill doesn’t just draw gulls, however. There are large flocks of starlings, ravens and even a lone house cat. A mature bald eagle also keeps watch from a nearby tree and occasionally swoops down to harass the gulls.

Casey says just after hunting season is a particularly good time to visit the landfill, as birds descend to feed on scraps of game carcasses. On a good day the dump will draw as many as 1,000 gulls.

Bon appetite.