Figure 1. Lesser Black-backed Gull and Royal Terns on the dock. All photographs by the author.

While staying at a rental house on Long Beach Road on Big Pine Key, Florida, during February and March 2023, I watched the behavior of presumably a single Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) on several occasions. The property is on the water and has a long dock, on which roosted 30-plus terns, an equal number of cormorants, and a smaller number of gulls of several species including a single Lesser Black-backed Gull (Figure 1). At low tide, the entire area around the dock was an exposed, rocky, heavily pitted, and irregular surface with small pools of seawater.