Gulls and Terns are water birds dwelling around coastal areas and water bodies and this short narrative touches upon some interesting facts and my comedic interaction with the two related bird species.
By Anupam Kamal
Story: This saga is about the resourceful, intelligent and expert food-stealers in the avian world – the Gulls! Colloquially referred to as Seagulls, my first encounter with these winged thieves was during a beach walk, where crossing all limits of decency, one of their kind robbed me of my sandwich! It was a beautiful sunny day with a clear blue sky and I was out for a stroll along the coastline of a vast water body. Scores of Gulls were flying around, mostly gliding with light flapping of their wings, and seemingly minding their own business; and I was minding mine, enjoying my tasty sandwich that I had picked up from one of the food stalls, when all of a sudden, I got a rush of air in my face from a ‘slap’ of a wing and lo, my sandwich was gone, taken by a white feathered thief. Momentarily zapped and outraged at being poached, with a million unuttered curses, I managed to remain calm and soon mellowed down thinking about the boldness and tact of these bandits who swoop down upon unsuspecting people and snatch their food leaving them angry and bewildered.
The difficulty of digesting my loss of 80 bucks’ worth of food became a trigger to enlighten myself on these gleamy-eyed inquisitive and intelligent birds, coming in many different genera and enjoying a cosmopolitan distribution. Highly adaptable to their surroundings, Gulls inhabit coastal areas, inland lakes, rivers, and even urban environments, and being kleptoparasitic feeders, they are experts in the art of stealing, grabbing, scavenging, and hunting, having a special eye for human snacks – as shown in a research experiment, where given a choice between two different bags of chips, Herring Gulls overwhelmingly picked the same colour bag that a human experimenter would be eating several metres away! And who wouldn’t have seen the video of a daring Gull walking into a department store, picking up a packet of snacking chips from the racks, and walking out boldly with complete fearlessness? Not only good in the air, they are also good at plunge diving and swimming and are more adept at walking than most seabirds. Talking of boldness, them Gulls also exhibit a characteristic mobbing behaviour wherein collectively they harass another bird carrying food until it finally drops it for them to grab, and employ the same strategy with predators as well with a great degree of success. They even dare to land on whales and peck on pieces of flesh when they surface; and are so skilled in aerobatics, that they play around by releasing food in midair and then flying down and catching it again.
As with all non-human friends, my telepathic vibes seemed to have connected with them and soon enough a white-bodied Ring-billed Gull gracefully walked up close to me, as if in apology, diluting my ill will and prompting me to forget the robbery and start admiring their kind. I admit my bias when I say it was a she-Gull as the red around beautiful yellowish eyes and matching beak on spotless white plumage made the bird look angelic. As always, my inquisitiveness to get to know more about them did get a response, for the Gull, demonstrating its highly developed social bonds, gave a call out to more of its kind who started flying close, giving me time to take my pictures. The Brown-headed Gull splashed the water showing off its exquisite set of wings and went for a fly-past as if saluting our newly developed friendship, while another one called on her ‘colony’ group to come and watch what was brewing.
My bonhomie with the Gulls wasn’t going unnoticed, for another set of white feathered waterbirds also watched the interaction keenly – the Terns, close relatives of the Gulls, co-inhabiting together in coastal areas. Saying hello to them, my cordial vibes met theirs midway, and finding me to be a friendly one from an otherwise dangerous species, they apprehensively came close to me seeking an audience. I opened the pleasantries with a non-flattering appreciation of their beautiful persona in general and their colourful beaks in particular and would’ve extended my foot for a foot-shake – since a handshake was not possible, as neither did they have hands nor did I have wings, had it not been for a loudish splash nearby, where looking on, I found that the Pallas’s Gull had plunge dived into the water and had caught a big fish! As our eyes saw each other, the proud bird looked rather pleased as I cheered and clapped my hands in appreciation and the Gull further showcased the working of his unhinging jaws by gulping down the fish which was somewhat bigger than its mouth!
In the non-verbal conversation that followed, the Terns were enthusiastic to speak about themselves and their unique capabilities of hovering, twisting, turning and diving with lightning-fast surgical precision to catch fish. The prodigious migratory adeptness of their cousins, the Artic Terns, transversing continents and oceans, all the way from the Artic north to Antarctica and back – a remarkable journey of over 30,000 km was another feather in their cap; not literally, I mean. Hearing this incredible feat of these truly wondrous birds had started burdening my mind with a load of questions, the foremost being – how did they navigate, to which the Terns nonchalantly spoke about relying on magnetic fields, geographical landmarks, and celestial objects to find their way – something we humans lack completely without engineered devices. The next obvious query was about sleep and rest during the long journey for which I received another astonishing reply that being experts at gliding, they let the ocean breeze do the job of carrying them, which conserves energy that otherwise would have been used for flapping their wings; and they could sleep on the wing while gliding!
The nip in the humid air was bringing a slight chill as it blew onto my face; and with my tummy full of information, digesting all the incredible feats of the Gulls and Terns, it seemed enough for a day. I also knew I was overstaying my welcome when one of the flying Gulls relieved it self near me, midair, perhaps as a cue, and before the next shite fell on me, I decided to pack up and leave. With ‘gracias’ on my lips and beautiful pictures in my camera, I hit the road to move on and away to explore more of the landscape and let other victims tell tales of the thieving Gulls and twisting Terns.
