The State - News from July 16, 1985

There are three times as many California gull chicks at Mono Lake as there were a year ago but it is too early in the summer to predict their chances of survival, federal and state officials said. Biologists from the U.S. Forest Service, the state Department of Fish and Game and other groups counted 19,800 chicks on 19 small islets. That was more than triple last year’s count of 5,542, they said. But the interagency team, taking a census of the gulls for the sixth year, said there are too many factors bearing on the chicks’ survival to predict their nesting success. The team noted that only 5% of the 11,698 gull chicks counted in July, 1981, survived the summer heat and various environmental factors.