Fine Dining on the Gulf Coast

When I looked through my photos of Alabama birds from my springtime trip to the Gulf Coast, I thought that there was a pretty obvious theme running through most of them: food!  After all, birds eat a lot, and their efforts to find food provide birders with plenty of entertainment.

The Bald Eagle that I watched on the Ocean Springs beach may have been thwarted in its hunting attempts, but this Osprey that I saw the following day on the Alabama coast clearly hadn’t been.  It devoured its prey, a large fish, while perched in a tall slash pine.  In a way, it was lucky for the Osprey that it found this relatively secure site to enjoy its meal; Bald Eagles are known to chase after Ospreys and steal their catches.  This Osprey did appear slightly wary, but it still clung tightly to the fish that it had caught, as if it wondered if I might try to take it.

Osprey in pine -- warily looking back

Back to lunching

Such a gorgeous and impressive bird! 

Although large species like Ospreys and Eagles are the most obvious predatory birds in marshes and on beaches, some much smaller birds also make a good showing.  Boat-tailed Grackles, the coastal cousins of the abundant and familiar Common Grackles, are extremely opportunistic, feeding by preying on invertebrates and other small animals, scavenging dead creatures along the shore, and nabbing snack food from tourists.  I saw several of these large, glossy grackles strutting along the beach, mainly near the pier.

Female Boat-tailed Grackle

Male Boat-tailed Grackle with food

Male Boat-tailed Grackle

Gulls, obviously, are opportunistic, too, although sometimes this tendency is misdirected.  I spent several minutes observing a small group of gulls loitering in the drier sand, away from the waves.  Take a closer look at the immature Laughing Gull (the one without a dark hood) on the left side of the following photo.  It was attempting to eat a wrapper or some other piece of garbage that it had found on the beach. 

Laughing Gulls on the sand

The Laughing Gull eventually dropped the piece of trash, which was then picked up by a young Ring-billed Gull.  Notice the pattern?  Immature birds tend to be worse at hunting than adult birds.  It’s apparently a skill that they have to gain through experience.

Mine!

All mine.

Like the Laughing Gull, the Ring-billed Gull relinquished its “prey” and moved on. 

Gak!

In the flock of Laughing Gulls was a strange and sad sight: a gull missing part of its foot.  I had seen another disabled Laughing Gull in the same location a few years before, but that bird was missing the opposite foot.  Unfortunately, this is probably the indirect result of humans hunting for food on the beach.  Fishing line can get tangled around birds’ feet and cut off the circulation, and I suspect that this is what had happened to the two gulls.   

Injured Laughing Gull

 

A different injured Laughing Gull in 2018

This particular bird didn’t seem to be too perturbed by its handicap, but I’m sure that foraging was much harder for it as a result of the injury.

Preening with that leg would be difficult, too.

On a lighter note, anyone who has seen my other posts on coastal birds can probably identify the species in the next photo.  The large, brownish, chunky gull on the left is an immature Herring Gull; the small, brownish birds in the center are Sanderlings; the two pale gulls to the right of the Sanderlings are Ring-billed Gulls; and the larger flock of gulls on the right are Laughing Gulls.  Happy birding!

A mix of species on the beach

Herring Gull

Sanderlings

Ring-billed Gulls

Laughing Gulls