HERRING GULL STUDIES: EYE CONTACT

August 19, 2019 by Rolling Harbour

HERRING GULL STUDIES: EYE CONTACT

Getting close to a herring gull is not a particularly heroic act, and yet… they look quite intimidating. The glint in the eye is somewhat evil. And they can be fairly aggressive when the mood takes them. I once had my scalp raked by a herring gull when I got too near a breeding area on a small island in Scotland. It got me from behind. There was blood. Plenty of it. It was my own stupid fault, and a lesson learned.

Behold a fine herring gull stepping ashore with its beady eye fixed on me. Behold it starting to advance towards me in a purposeful way… Then it noticed the camera and decided to pose instead of attack.

One complication for amateur birders is that these (and other) gulls take 4 years to reach maturity and the full adult plumage shown here . We’ve all seen those huge browny-gray-speckled babies crying pitifully to be fed, when they are nearly the same size as the food-providing parent. Over those few first years the plumage goes through several stages, and other colour changes – eyes and feet, for example – take place. Eventually they get to look as handsome as this one.

I photographed the bird featured here only last week, on the south coast of Ireland, which is a bit of a cheat. Strictly, you are looking at a European herring gull, although the differences from the American ‘Smithsonian’ herring gull is relatively small. I’ll say ‘negligible’ for present purposes.

WHAT’S THE PURPOSE OF THE RED BLOB ON THE UNDER-BEAK?

Good question, and one that historically was the subject of hot debate in ornithological circles. The short answer is that scientific investigation and experimentation led to the conclusion that the red blob is a kind of feeding cue for chicks, a target area for them to aim for food or to peck to say they are hungry. Some other gull species also have this clever beak feature.

“HAPPY FEET”

As we all know, there are gull species with yellow legs (not least the apty-named yellow-legged gull in Europe). Herring gulls have decidedly pink legs and feet, and interestingly constructed ones at that. This isn’t the moment for a lot of technical blurb about it – just take a look at these 2 images. Extraordinary, huh?

RELATED POSTS

LAUGHING GULL

BONAPARTE’S GULL

RING-BILLED GULL

All photos: Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour

ABACO BIRDS YOU CAN SEE IN THE BIG APPLE…

January 6, 2016 by Rolling Harbour

ABACO BIRDS YOU CAN SEE IN THE BIG APPLE…

Big Apple, here we come! Mrs RH has business there next week. Sometimes, if I have behaved particularly well for an extended period – 2 years on average – I am invited to go along on her US trips. Providing I can grab a cheap fare as well. Well, sorted! NYC is my absolutely favourite capital city. Along with Marsh Harbour, obvs. And maybe Paris. Not London, we live there. Too close to home.

Northern Mockingbird, High Line, NYC Northern Mockingbird NYC High Line

I never go shopping, but I have specific must-dos. Route 66 on 9th for the best breakfast ever. Walking the wonderful new High Line park, extended since we were last there. The Staten Island Ferry out and straight back for the best free ‘Manhattan view plus water ride’ experience. The Tramway cable car to Roosevelt Island to visit the beautifully restored Blackwell Farmhouse which dates from 1796 and is arguably NYC’s oldest surviving residential building (not many people know this). Then a brisk walk to Lighthouse Point for a winter picnic. This is where, one day, I plan to catch a fish – any fish – on the fly in the East River. I’ve debated packing a small travel rod & reel this time but it is not an ideal time of year, frankly, and I don’t want to set myself up for failure in what will anyway be a hard task…

A Herring Gull provides irrefutable proof that there is piscine life in the East River even in winter
Life in the East River NY

Mallards in Central park: a male and a LEUCISTIC female Mallard (m) NYC Central Park Mallard (f) - leucistic NYC Central Park

And to people’s complete bemusement (sample comment: “Are you quite mad?”) I go birding. NYC is a great place for it, being on a major migration flyway. Central Park is fantastic, especially the Ramble, the Reservoir, and the lesser known wild areas at the top end – the Loch, the Ravine, Harlem Meer. Prospect Park Brooklyn is another great place, with wild woodland and lakes for many water bird species. There’s a wildlife refuge at Jamaica Bay which looks worth exploring too, though it’s a bit of a trek. Anyway, here are a few Big Apple birds that are found on – or at least recorded for – Abaco (some very rarely, it has to be said).

Ring-billed and Herring Gulls on the Staten Island Ferry Ring-billed Gull NYC Staten Island Ferry Ring-billed Gull NYC 2 Staten Island Ferry Herring Gull NYC 2 Staten Island Ferry Herring Gull NYC Staten Island Ferry

Male & female Hooded Mergansers on the JKO Reservoir, Central Park Hooded Merganser (m) NYC JKO Reservoir Hooded Merganser (f) 2 NYC JKO Reservoir

Male House Sparrow (Central Park) & female (Prospect Park, Brooklyn) House Sparrow NYC Central Park House Sparrow (f) NYC Prospect Park

Rock Pigeon, Central Park Rock Pigeon NYC

Eurasian Starling (High Line Park) Starling NYC High Line Park

Canada Goose on ice (Prospect Park, Brooklyn) Canada Goose NYC Prospect Park

American Robin (Prospect Park, Brooklyn) American Robin NYC Prospect Park

Poor photo of a Coot (Harlem Meer, Central park) Coot NYC Central Park Harlem Meer

Ultra-shy Red-winged Blackbird (Prospect Park, Brooklyn) Red-winged Blackbird NYC Prospect Park I can only get away with crap photos like this because it’s my blog & your decision to put up with it

Bufflehead, JKO Reservoir Central Park Bufflehead NYC JKO Reservoir Central Park A bird recorded once or perhaps twice for Abaco in the last 60 years. I have better photos than this, but this one best illustrates your chance of seeing one on Abaco – vanishing…

~~Hairy~~** Red-bellied Woodpecker (The Ramble, Central Park)

Red-tailed Hawk NYC (Prospect Park Brooklyn) Red-tailed Hawk NYC Prospect Park Brooklyn The RTH header image was taken in the Ramble, Central Park

** As Woody Bracey has been quick to point out, this is in fact a Red-bellied Woodpecker, not a Hairy Woodpecker. Unlike the HWP, the RBW is not recorded for Abaco. HOWEVER I do have a HWP photo from Central Park somewhere, and if I can find it I’ll substitute it and make it right!

All photos, good, bad and indifferent: The Author

WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG… WITH A COUPLE OF HERRING GULLS

December 2, 2015 by Rolling Harbour

WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG… WITH A COUPLE OF HERRING GULLS

Well this is most annoying. What we have here can only only be called a wifi crisis… Since Sunday, I have described the situation in a healthy variety of colourful ways, some of them down the telephone line. Now I know that Abaconians are inured to the inconveniences of outages on a regular basis. But where I am right now, the wifi is usually dependable. Except when it’s not. Then things get complicated – blogging, buying stuff on @m@z@n etc, soshul meeja and so on. There’s the iphone, but they can be fiddly for all that sort of thing, and anyway I can’t upload images that I want to use.

So, having at last found an ethernet cable at the back of a drawer, I have a degree of connectivity. And a whole mass of stuff to catch up with. Wednesday is a usual day for a me to post – it has a nice mid-week-ish feel to it (even if one doesn’t refer to it as ‘hump day’). So I am deploying a couple of herring gulls just because, with my inconveniently short length of yellow cable, I can.

See you with something from my post queue once the signal thing on my desktop has turned from grey to black…

Herring Gull 1 (Keith Salvesen)

Images: moi

FIVE ELEGANT GULLS AND A SMART BUOY: BIRDS OF ABACO

March 5, 2014 by Rolling Harbour

FIVE ELEGANT GULLS AND A SMART BUOY: BIRDS OF ABACO

There are 8 gull species recorded on Abaco. The 5 species shown here all feature in the new ‘Delphi Club Guide to the Birds of Abaco’. The others are the occasional vagrants Black-legged Kittiwake and Black-headed Gull; and the rare winter visitor Great Black-backed Gull. We do in fact have a Black-headed Gull in the archive (in winter plumage), but it was taken on New Providence and wasn’t eligible for inclusion in a book of Abaco birds. Even as a cheat.

Black-headed Gull (winter plumage) NP

HERRING GULL (& header image) (WR 2)

BONAPARTE’S GULL (WR 4)

LAUGHING GULL (PR B 1)

LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL (WR 2)

RING-BILLED GULL (WR 1)

NOAA ‘SMART BUOY’ (Chesapeake Bay)*Photo Credits: Bruce Hallett, Woody Bracey, Nina Henry, RH, + NOAA

* Correct. The image is included solely to enable a laboured & old hat pun on ‘girls & boys’.

HERRING GULLS (Larus smithsonianus) CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF A PREFERRED KIND

March 2, 2013 by Rolling Harbour

HERRING GULL Larus smithsonianus

The Herring Gull needs no introduction. So I won’t give it one. Instead, here are some close-ups of one that obligingly stayed still long enough, and at close enough range, to enable me to focus. The final two are possibly worth single- or double-clicking on to see the finer details. I prefer cooperative birds like this…