The nature conservation guard service of the Palic-Ludas Public Enterprise, the nature conservation guards of the Kiskunság National Park Directorate and the activists of the Riparia Association of Environmentalists mowed the gull islands at the beginning of this year and, inspired by the positive experiences of the past years, installed a new artificial island in the area.
Lake Palic was divided into four parts when the lake was cleaned up in the late 1970s. In the second section, islands were created from the silt accumulated in the lake bed, which were quickly taken over by birds. The four islands have different vegetation cover and thus different bird species breed on them, such as: several species of ducks, a mixed heron colony, a colony of Pygmy and Great Cormorants, and a breeding area for gulls at the end of the second island and on the entire area of the third island.
In the last thirty years, the breeding population has been made up of Black headed and Mediterranean gulls, but in the 1980s there were also Common terns, which have unfortunately disappeared since then.
This island is the only permanent breeding site of the Mediterranean gull in Serbia. In order to maintain the breeding population, these areas need to be regularly maintained as an active conservation measure. Mediterranean gulls require tranquility for breeding and prefer to be free of tall vegetation when breeding begins. Therefore, the islands should be mown before the breeding season starts.
Over the last 50 years, the Black headed gull population has ranged from 1000 to 2000 pairs. And the number of breeding pairs of Mediterranean gulls has varied between 10 and 50 pairs, with the exception of one or two outstanding years when it jumped to 150 pairs, and a marked increase in the breeding population in 2019:
- 2019: 266 pairs,
- 2020: 406 pairs,
- 2021: 520 pairs,
- 2022: 650 pairs.
Then in 2023, avian influenza affected the gulls breeding in the Carpathian Basin, so it reached the Palic colony, causing the death of hundreds of Black headed and Mediterranean gulls. Finally, in 2024, probably due to a combination of other negative factors, the gulls did not breed at all.
We now want to change this, so at the beginning of this year, after a week of hard work, the Palics-Ludas Public Enterprise’s nature conservation guard service, the nature conservation guards of the Kiskunság National Park Directorate and the activists of the Riparia Association of Environmentalists fully prepared the gull island for breeding, cut down the unwanted herbaceous vegetation and used the biomass to create an erosion protection beach around the islands. Invasive and degradation-induced woody vegetation was removed and a 100 m2 artificial gravel-filled platform was created, which is also suitable for gulls breeding.
We hope to report successful breeding data this summer.
