Gull Gallery

These pictures were all taken on the Oregon coast, I'm not much good at identifying the different gull species so I won't try.

A gull grabs a crab from a tidepool at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area
Opportunity
As the tide comes in and fills the tidepools with water, the little ecosystems come alive as animals come out to feed. Sometimes the larger world intrudes, however, and an opportunity for a crab to feed is also an opportunity for a gull to swoop in and snare a quick meal.

Tool User
Birds have evolved different strategies to solve the same problem. Oystercatchers have a long thin bill dedicated to cracking open shellfish and extracting the flesh inside. Gulls have a varied diet (to put it mildly) and so have more general purpose bills. That didn't deter this gull, however, from trying for a mussel meal. It would hold the shell in its mouth, fly up high, then drop the mussel onto the agate beach to get the shell to crack open. Mussels must have a pretty tough shell as the gull never managed to crack it despite several attempts.
A gull holds a mussel in its beak on an agate beach at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area
A close-up view of the head of a gull at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area
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Last modified: August 26, 2009