Category Archives: cape cod gulls

Finding inspiration in nature

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As much as I love to be outdoors much of my work each week keeps me indoors at a computer or studio table, especially in winter. Even on the coldest and wildest of winter days, however, I like to get out of the house and often take my sketchbook or notebook with me. Some days I jot down a few thoughts, some days I sketch a bit and lots of days I just get lost in thought while watching the waves and the gulls and I don’t do either.

020Some days I contemplate the winter lives of gulls. It has to be tough being a gull on the winter beach. It’s cold, windy and often just nasty and uncomfortable. In order to keep their insulating feathers in place they must face right into the wind and no matter how hunkered down in the sand or behind rocks they are, that has to still be really cold and yucky. And how about those naked scaly legs? I have read a lot about how birds keep warm, especially their legs and feet but still, looks pretty cold to me.

Gulls are not what we may call “nice” birds. They scavenge, they argue, they steal and they murder. I have seen gulls kill the young of other gulls and I’ve seen them drown diving ducks. In spite of all that, I respect their ability to survive and thrive. Gulls are tough, really tough.

001Over the years I’ve drawn a lot of gulls, probably more than I’ve drawn any other single kind of bird. Gulls have many postures but they also have a rich language. I can watch and listen to them for long periods of time.

I often find inspiration in nature. Usually I look for the beautiful and sublime to raise my spirits but some days, I only need to watch the gulls for a bit. They remind me that we can be strong and persevere through whatever gets tossed our way and some days that is exactly the message I need to hear.

How about you? What in nature inspires you the most?

 

 

Winter Scenes

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I drove to Provincetown today and these are some of the photos I took along the way. Cape Cod Bay has lots of ice. This shot is from First Encounter Beach in Eastham.Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown had a very brisk wind and these gulls were hunkered down in the sand to stay warm and out of the wind.
This view is overlooking Nauset Marsh from the Coast Guard station in Eastham.
Another view of Nauset Marsh showing the ice.
On the other end of Nauset Marsh, the view from Fort Hill in Eastham…
It was a cold and windy day but still beautiful here on Cape Cod. We saw very few other people out and about but lots of other cool things. I will post some of them as the week goes on.

Young gulls….

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are easy to recognize with their gray and rather mottled appearance and there are quite a few of them on our beaches and in parking lots right now. Some species of gull keep their immature plumage for up to 4 years though the average is probably more like 2-3 years.

This young bird is a first year herring gull. Herring gulls used to be the dominant gull on the Cape, with a few greater Black-backed gulls mixed in and laughing gulls in the summer. Black-backs are now the dominant gull, I believe. They are the largest gull and very aggressive so that is not surprising. There are still plenty of herring gulls around, though. They are the gulls most people around here refer to as sea gulls. There aren’t really any particular birds named sea gull, by the way. It’s just a general sort of name, like minnows for tiny fish…..

This is an adult herring gull starting to go into its fall plumage. See the red tip at the end of the beak? That is fading now but in the spring and summer that is a bright red. Baby gulls eat food regurgitated by their parents and they let their parents know they are hungry by pecking on the red spot.
Do you know why herring gulls are called herring gulls?