"MINE. MINE. MINE. MINE." PHOTO: LISA DENSMORE BALLARD
[THE SECR ET LI FE OF…] GULLS
Seagulls, those ubiquitous scavengers that follow your kayak, poop on you at the pull-out and greedily eye your fish, are actually intelligent, precision fliers that hold a number of surprising
secrets. Here are a few facts about gulls to help these marine aviators get more respect. LISA DENSMORE BALLARD
• The term seagull is an inaccurate generic name for the Laridaes family of birds, as many gull species live on in-land waterways and only one species, kittiwakes, ventures far out to sea.
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull was the main character in the 1970 bestselling book and hit movie about a test pilot who designed and flew radio-controlled gliders that mimicked the flight of a real seagull. Livingston’s story was the inspiration for a number of hit songs, including James Gang’s Ride with the Wind and ABBA’s Eagle. Neil Diamond won a Grammy for the motion picture’s title track, which sold over two million copies.
• Many gull species have a prominent spot on their bill that serves as a visual cue to baby gulls. The chicks peck at the spot to induce their parents to regurgitate dinner.
• The English new wave band, A Flock of Seagulls, had a run of international hits during the 1980s including I Ran So Far Away. The band took its name from a line in the Stranglers song A Toiler on the Sea. The song goes: “The young ones used their hands/Pointed the way to a flock/A flock of seagulls!/A flock of seagulls!”
• Gulls separate freshwater from saltwater using a pair of glands above their eyes that flushes the salt from their systems through openings in their bill.
• In Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 thriller, The Birds, a massive flock of herring gulls stalked and killed humans in a California seaside community. The plot is not as far-fetched as it sounds. In real life, herring gulls have caused serious head injuries and even human deaths protecting their nests.
• Gulls exist on every continent and ocean, including Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean.
• California gulls are revered in the Mormon religion for saving crops from a locust plague in 1848. The gulls, which nest inland and eat insects, devoured the locusts and saved the crops. As a result of the “miracle of the gulls”, the California gull is the state bird of Utah.
• Gull species vary greatly in size. The largest gull on earth, the great black-backed gull, weighs almost four pounds and has a five-foot wingspan, about the same as a small eagle. The smallest gull, the aptly named little gull, weighs a quarter-pound and has a two-foot wingspan.
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