As regular readers probably already know, I love spending
time on the Gulf Coast. This spring, I
was able to spend a few days enjoying the natural sights in parts of coastal
Mississippi and Alabama. Let’s take a
look at some of the avian life that I observed in an afternoon on the Mississippi coast!
It was a pleasant day at the Ocean Springs public beach, and
the area was teeming with birds. Snowy
Egrets waded near the shore, darting back and forth in the shallows as they
searched for fish and aquatic invertebrates.
They occasionally stopped and flew farther up the beach to find better
pickings.
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Snowy Egrets
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Gulls, terns, cormorants, and pelicans perched on old
pilings.
The size difference between the
species Laughing Gull and Herring Gull is apparent in the next couple of
photos.
Most of the Herring Gulls that I
saw had not yet attained adult plumage—probably because it takes the birds four
years to reach maturity.
Herring Gulls’ slow
maturation goes hand-in-hand with their longevity, though; individuals have
been known to live for several decades in the wild.
I imagine that the older ones are the wiliest
of beach marauders.
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Herring Gulls, Laughing Gull (foreground), and Double-crested Cormorant (at right)
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Herring Gull in middle, Laughing Gulls above and below
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In addition to the Herring Gulls, there were dozens of Laughing
Gulls milling around on the beach and foraging over the water.
Their raucous calls rang out in the salty
air.
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Laughing Gull flock
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Black Skimmers, which, as their name suggests, hunt for fish
by gliding low over the water and skimming the surface with their long bills,
formed their own sizeable flocks on the sandbars.
They also sometimes mingled with the Laughing
Gulls, but they did not fly out to hunt.
Unlike the more diurnal gulls and terns, skimmers tend to be
crepuscular, foraging mainly during dawn and dusk.
I can relate; I don’t always feel so energetic
during the heat of midday, either.
Skimmers actually have more rods than cones in their eyes than most
birds do, which makes it easier for them to hunt in dim light.
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Gulls and Black Skimmers
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A few Ring-billed and Bonaparte’s Gulls were mixed in with
the enormous flocks of Laughing Gulls.
Ring-billed Gulls bear distinctive black markings on their bills, and
Bonaparte’s Gulls—during winter and spring, at least—have smudgy dark spots on
their heads.
Both species are common on
the Gulf Coast from fall to spring, although they’re far less numerous than
Laughing Gulls.
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Ring-billed Gull strolling along
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Bonaparte's Gull swimming
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At one point, most of the roosting and foraging birds were
stirred up by … something. The flocks of
gulls and skimmers simply exploded upward in a flurry of wingbeats. What was going on?
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Stirred up!
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Looking around, I deduced that the source of the
consternation was an adult Bald Eagle that was perched in a giant live oak
tree.
Wow!
Bald Eagles will certainly catch gulls and
other shorebirds if they get the opportunity, but, given that this one had been
detected already by its potential prey, I think that its chances of obtaining a
poultry meal at this site were slim.
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The Bald Eagle
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Apparently, even a predator as fierce as a Bald Eagle is a
bit less frightening to smaller birds if they can let it know that they can see it.
This is probably why a bunch of the Laughing Gulls dive-bombed the eagle—taunting
it prevented it from launching a surprise attack on the flock.
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Gull flying over eagle's head
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Overall, it was a great afternoon for birding on the Gulf Coast.
Stay tuned for more in later posts!
