On Tuesday, I walked along the shore of Huron Bay. It was a cold, windy day and the water on the bay was choppy and dark. In the distance I found a flock of gulls settled in on the shore line. It was obvious that they were aware of my presence for as I moved closer to them, they moved proportionately away. Despite their reluctance to pose for me I was able to get off several photographs before they moved out of a range.
People have a love/hate relationship with seagulls. Herring gulls (the proper name of the seagulls that reside in our area) will eat almost anything and are great at scavenging dead fish, crabs and food waste from local beaches and landfills. But as we all know, what goes in must come out so herring gulls have a bad reputation of depositing their poop on windshields, beach blankets and if you are truly unlucky, on your head.
As members of the Laridae (LAR-ih-dee) family, 43 species of gulls can be found world-wide. Comfortable in both salt and freshwater environments and despite their name “seagull” gulls do not normally live on the ocean but in the shallower waters of lakes, bays and oceans.
Gulls are not particularly strong flyers relying instead upon the air currents to carry them from one area to another. With their web feet, they are excellent swimmers but unlike ducks and other waterfowls, rarely dive underwater for food.
Not known for their demure behavior, herring gulls like to congregate in large numbers (called colonies), wailing, squeaking and generally making a noisy racket. As a species, gulls are a pretty bird to watch. Herring gull chicks are born with white and black spotted downy feathers. As they age the juvenile gulls are predominately black in color eventually fading to gray and finally the familiar adult white/gray.
I left the beach, satisfied that I got several good photographs. As for the gulls, they began moving back to their original spot returning to their conservation that I had rudely interrupted.
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