April 2016

A couple of times recently I have seen pairs of herring gulls (Larus argentatus) paddling.  By paddling I don’t mean that they were cooling their toes in the surf, but rather stamping on the ground in the middle of a field.  Perhaps a better word would have been charming.  I can hear the howls of protest now from people who consider herring gulls a confounded nuisance, especially those who have to put up with gulls nesting nearby, their raucous calls, smelly droppings, and their habit of ripping rubbish bags and strewing the contents all over the place.  In using the word charming, I wasn’t describing their character, but what they were doing – worm charming.  At this time of year when winter food sources have run out and the spring bounty has yet to kick in, herring gulls fall back on earthworms as a large part of their diet.  So the word charming was used in the same context as snake charming.  They are trying to convince worms that it is raining in order to lure them to the surface, or so the theory goes anyway.  I guess that you’d need to ask an earthworm whether or not that’s what actually happens.

Although large groups of herring gulls can be seen charming worms, I have only seen them in pairs over the last week or so.  I suspect that as well as finding a meal, this activity may have something to do with pair bonding.   As well as building or reinforcing bonds, this has the practical purpose of assessing how good the potential mate is at finding food during hard times.  As yet I haven’t seen any ritual bin-bag ripping, but you never know…

Although herring gull numbers are declining, they are not declining as fast as other seabirds are.  The reasons for the decline are the usual ones – over-fishing, destruction of seabed habitat, and to some extent persecution (In 2010, Natural England removed the herring gull from the list of species landowners and occupiers could be licenced to kill without further authorization.  Since 2009 it has been on the RSPB’s Red List of threatened species.)  But the herring gull has a couple of advantages over other seabirds in the survival stakes – firstly it is adaptable and able to eat a variety of food.  It is able to catch slow moving prey such as crabs or starfish, but it is also a very able scavenger, hence the flocks that haunt rubbish tips and the bin-bag ripping.  They will also be found amongst other gulls following the plough to pick up worms and other invertebrates.

The second advantage is their intelligence.  They are well able to cope with most measures designed to stop them roosting or nesting on rooftops.  Model birds of prey are largely ignored once the gulls notice their lack of movement.  Also spikes and netting are coped with due to their large leathery feet. 

Their third weapon is fear, or rather, lack of it (otherwise this would be a Monty Python sketch!).  They will fiercely defend their nest sites from anybody they consider a threat by dive-bombing and pecking, often accompanied by fishy vomit or faeces. 

All three of the attributes mentioned above – their varied diet, their intelligence and their lack of fear can be easily demonstrated by anyone walking down Hastings seafront with a tray of burger and chips.

Sadly, I have been unable to find any photos of herring gulls.  I will rectify that as soon as I can, but meanwhile here are a couple of handsome specimens from Tasmania.

Silver Gull

Pacific Gull