What's With Those Seagulls ???
January 22, 2012
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OK, that was a little different!
On several afternoons over the last two weeks there have been really HUGE flocks of seagulls gathering and flying high into the sky. They soared almost out of sight. And they were wheeling randomly, not in organized groups! You just don't see that every day. The flocks seemed to gather suddenly, fly very high, then disperse only to appear a little later up or down the river.
Last week I drove back and forth between the Liberty and Independence bridges trying to get a photo. It wasn't easy. The flocks were obvious to the human eye, but were hard to depict in a photo. I did see, in the distance, one huge congregation sitting on the water and ice skim near the Independence bridge. As if on cue, they rose in a mass and climbed quickly.
It's not uncommon to see flights of gulls in the late evening as they head north above the river. But those flights are usually smaller groups in organized V's or lines all going the same direction. There may be many of these flights, but not like the huge, random flocks seen last week.
Gulls will also gather in feeding flocks. But usually they're within the first 500 feet or so and usually chasing flying insect swarms, like ants. You know that's what they're doing because they're going relatively slow, and making sudden shifts to catch the insects.
Small Ant Swarm
The ant swarms will be mostly wingless workers pushing the winged males, and a few winged queens, to the surface. There they take to the air flying high on air currents and clustering to search for the few queens. The males die quickly and the fertilized females disperse to start new colonies.
Swarms are often triggered by wet weather when nests all around an area will swarm, making for clouds of insects. The gulls spot them quickly and zoom in for the feast.
But the recent seagull flocks were NOT going after ants or other insects. It was the wrong season in the first place, and the flocks were too huge and high for another.
I've seen the flocks several times in the last two weeks. As one who watches birds, this seems a bit unusual. Last week my wife called from downtown to ask if I had seen the birds. She was looking out the front window of her store and was stunned by the numbers. Her comment: "It was like the Hitchcock movie The Birds."
So what's the deal? If you see a huge flock, stop and take note. If you know, or have an idea, what's going on, drop me a line.
Gulls lift from the river near Independence Bridge
A better shot of one flock.
But even a telephoto lens can't do justice to the the sheer size!
This cropped image is less than a quarter of the entire picture.
Ant swarm up close
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Stephen Kent |
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