Wake Dwelling Seagulls

[dinosaw]

I am always surprised that there are a so many people out there (not on this forum obviously) who consider birds to be stupid creatures. I have used the ferry across the bay now a good few times and it has been interesting to watch the behaviour of the gulls doing what is known as wake dwelling. It is a twenty minute trip and for the first five there is little activity with the gulls either sitting on top of the ferry roof, or waiting out to sea, after five when the ship has reached deeper water and picked up speed a small flock of 10-20 birds appears behind it, flying in the slipstream and criss crossing the ship waiting to spot fish that have been forced to the surface by the propellors, I assume that as well as being forced to the top, the wake inhibits the vision of the fish while making them easier for the gulls to spot. It then seems as if a leader decides when to swoop as when one bird swoops and they all follow, a lot of squabbling follows and then they repeat until we get 3/4 of the way and they either appear as shapes on top of the canvas getting a free ride or hold their station waiting for the return trip. What struck me though was the economy of effort, they have honed their routine to get the most food for the least effort just like humans. The other thing that I didn't know is that they only need a very small amount of light to be able to fly, we see plenty of gulls fly past our window in the dark, apparently the city lights are enough to guide them. Anyway I took a few photos today of them following when I went over to stuff myself with gozleme on the other side, I am cursing that I didn't bring the better camera now, but the hand luggage weighed 15kg as it was!

 

[chrismahon]

Great photos Dinosaw. When I lived in Felixstowe the gulls waited for people's empty fish and chip papers and then took them out of the bins, unfolded them and ate the scraps inside -made a hell of a mess, so all the bins had to be fitted with lids. What on earth did you have in your hand luggage to weigh 15Kg?

 

[dinosaw]

I know, it surprised me how heavy it was in the end, there were multiple laptops plus chargers and a couple of other electrical items that would have been very expensive out here and a large file of paperwork we needed for residency/house sale/bank accounts etc. It was nothing compared to the actual luggage mind, you should have seen me pushing that up a ramp at gatwick.