Zilvermeeuw Larus argentus en Kleine Mantelmeeuw Larus fuscus als broedvogels in Vlaanderen

During the second half of the twentieth century, the number of Herring Gulls Larus argentatus in Belgium strongly increased from one pair in 1960 to 1703 pairs in 2001. The number of Lesser Black-backed Gulls L. fuscus increased from one pair in 1985 to 2863 pairs in 2001. For both species, the colonisation of Belgium started in the Zwin nature reserve, Knokke, but here the number of pairs never exceeded 74 and 40 for Herring and Lesser Black-backed, respectively. A strong increase was found at newly created land in the outer harbour of Zeebrugge (from 1987 onwards), where 1184 and 2695 pairs... Mehr ...