Since I've seen, and photographed, that and how seagulls eat sea-urchins, their world has opened up for me. Of nearly 2,000 photos 68 remained that give a broad picture of the daily life of a seagull.
For weighty reasons is was not possible to put all this on the Dolphin Address pages. Also the 'Foto' department did not avail. And then Carola came with an idea that marks a new era for Dolphin Address. As of now the photos and videos will be on the 'dolphin_address' webpage of Mobile Me, http://gallery.me.com/dolphin_address#(number=)100087 (in this case).
View suggestion: print the text to follow the photos off close.
In photo 1, most of the herring gulls sit sleeping. Some are standing, some are awake and near the centre stands a glaucous gull. A peaceful tableau.
Gulls often gather. Sometimes the little beach is deserted, but when one arrives the rest arrive in the blink of an eye. And then right away there's quite a commotion.
Recently a lot of dead seaweed has washed up and in it there live all kinds of creatures to the gulls' liking. But to get to it they have to float on the water. The waves that wash in are often just a bit (and sometimes a lot) too high for a gull to remain seated on the water and then they fly across it. To me it seemed that there must be a very good pay-off for seeking food in the seaweed, because, I thought, to climb into the wings time after time must cost a lot of energy. Until I saw how they do this. When a wave comes they spread out their wings and reach forward, like you can see on the photos 2 to 12. In this they do two things that lift them across the wave with minimal effort.
When a bird flies, to put it simply, it pushes air down. But here the gull pushes air towards the other wing and vice versa. This makes up a far more powerful push-off than ordinary flying. Moreover the beaten-down air bounces on the resistance of the water. Thus an 'air cushion' is formed.
Also invisibly the wave displaces air, pushes it forward. This the gulls also catch under their bowl-shaped wings. Aha indeed! So they hop across the waves.
But waves come in all shapes and sizes and it's not always certain whether you have to go into your wings. Photo 12 shows such an uncertain case.
But gulls do not always fly against the waves, but also with them. To profit from the wind push, they must fly just before the wave with their wings spread as wide as possible, photos 13, 14 and 15. On photo 16 you see behind the ascending gull how the drip trail is lifted by the wind push. The gull in photo 17 goes up from calm water and his drip trail is the reverse.
Often when looking for food they fly in patrol. A squadron of gulls then flies along the shoreline in formation, photos 18 to 21. When they think they see something they hang for a while with a spying eye. Photos 22 to 24.
The feathers are not always a smooth suit. Like a plane brakes once it has landed, with the hind flaps of the wings up, so upon the wings of a landing gull the feathers stand up by the turbulence and slow down the flight. Photos 25 and 26.
But Nature is not always perfection. The gull in photo 27 made a bit of a wrong judgement and landed against a wave. He looks kind of awkward. Then the glaucous gull in photo 28 is far more elegant. He even has a graceful bow wave before his chest. Also the herring gull in photo 29 does it in style, taking a bow wave.
A wavelet is hoppable, photo 30, although at times it can be wettish, photo 31. But when they get higher you have to go into your wings, photo 32. But you should not be easily scared, as sometimes the cast of a wave looks more like a maw, photo 33, and then the tough get going, photo 34.
In photo 35 you see the diverging of opinions: who's chicken, but wise and who's brave, but stupid. In photo 36 you see the answer. But OK, sometimes you're valiant, photo 37 and it pays off, photo 38.
You can even deliberately dive into a wave, photo 39, enjoy the view, and unruffled pop up at its rear, photo 40.
The gull in photo 41 seems about to surf the wave on his feet and in photo 42 you see he's surfing indeed, but on his tail wing.
When a gull holds his wings with the underside out, like in photo 43, he can swiftly go sideways or upward. And that comes in handy when you're hanging above a crashing wave. But when a gull lands he has the underside of the wings inside, to brake and to catch himself. To lessen the impact of the landing this bowl shape is 'deeper' on land, photo 44, than on the water, photo 45.
If you need to search for your food amidst weeds that have been beaten to confetti on the rocks, sometimes some keeps hanging off your foot, photo 47. But if this is lace weed, then it's not always easy to disentangle yourself, photos 48 to 52.
Gulls love fish, but they must be gullable, photo 53. Not sure what it is. He had it in photo 16, but he' still flying on with it in photo 54.
Ownership is taken for granted or anyway in the gull world. Possession is claimed by the strongest, the boldest and the loudest. Glaucous gulls are bigger and stronger and they are the champions. Still a herring gull does not take everything lying down, photo 55, or even sides with a glaucous gull, photo 56. The gull in the foreground is ringed. We'll meet him again in the glaucous gull gallery. In photo 57 too, a glaucous is badbeaked by a herring gull.
But in the air too, not everything always goes in proper order. In photo 58 a glaucous cuts into the wing of a herring gull. In photos 59 and 60 he is scolded for this by the victim who next flies into another herring gull, photo 61. The glaucous is slightly unbalanced as well, as he bumps after landing across the wave into another gull, photos 62 and 63.
Not always gulls bob in between floating seaweed. At high tide they try to strike from the rocks, photos 64 and 65. There the water is much more savage and incalculable. There the risks are a lot higher and there it's each for his own.
But at sea they go by the lot of them, flying, photo 65 as well as floating, photos 66 and 67.
As humans we watch these gull photos in terms of how they do things. To them that is of no interest. At all. The last gull in photo 68 shows what counts for them.