On the Wing #30: Gull Appreciation Week

I know most people see them as walking, swimming, and flying terrors out to steal your chips and ice cream, but I like gulls for two reasons. One reason is that their almost ubiquitous presence along our shores seems almost miraculous today because of the ways they were nearly eradicated up to 150 years ago. The adults were hunted for their feathers and wings to adorn the hats of fashionable society ladies in the mid to late 1800s, while the eggs were collected from their offshore colonies for fine diners in New York, Boston, and Pittsburgh. Thankfully the slaughter was stopped by the Audubon Society and other concerned citizens and today they are one of our most ubiquitous citizens along our shores, lakes, and beaches. The second reason I have taken a shine to them is that because of their common presence around the parking lot where I now sit (and wait for hunters to hopefully come in and allow me to survey them on their success at hunting Oldsquaws. Yeah birding community, I just went old-school!), they make for fairly easy photographic subjects for an amateur like me with a basic digital camera (I'd tell you what kind, but it's in my bag in the car and being nippy outside, I think I'll stay put).

Here now for your viewing pleasure are a selection of photos I've taken over the past two weeks at my "workplace". Hope you guys appreciate these larids as much as I do.

P.S. The judging for Babe Ruth of Ornithology will begin next week. Just a heads up for ya. Have a great week and as always, happy birding ^_^.

Cop feeding gulls. And you're supposed to be the law of the land? I like 'em too, but you really shouldn't be feeding wild birds. It promotes unhealthy eating, poor exercise conditions, and they have higher rates of "failure to launch" children.
A Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis) looking generally irritated at its current circumstances.
A third year Herring Gull (L. argentatus) busy making itself look pretty for the camera.
They're not exactly camera-shy, although this one eyes me warily.
Though it would appear this bird is trying to show off, it was actually taken as the bird was landing. Compared to lefty, it seems to be quite the pose off.
Easily mistaken as a "female" gull due to it's brown plumage, the early years of a gulls life is largely taunts at it being "girly" in appearance. With successive plumages, this ceases to be a problem.







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