Category Archives: herring gulls

More beach goodness…

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I love walking on the beach really early in the morning. I especially like it when I’m the only one there and that happens more frequently than you might think, even in mid summer….

Often the mornings are misty….

Boats are still at rest in the early morning light….

Even the gulls appear to be resting. These two young gulls are immature, most likely second year, greater black backed gulls. Note their cleanly marked plumage and blackish bills.

Compare the bigger body mass and clean look of the black backs with this muddier looking, smaller gull–an immature, probably second year, herring gull.

here are more black backed gulls–a full adult, a third year herring gull (I think) and what I would call a second year black backed gull. I am not a gull expert so feel free to disagree with me if you have something to add.

The gull with the gray back is a herring gull, the one most people just refer to as a seagull. That is an immature bird on the right.

This willet landed nearby as I was taking pictures of the gulls so I included it here, too. There is at least one pair of willets nesting in the marsh nearby this beach and I see them feeding here almost daily. They don’t usually hang out up in the sandy area like this one but I think I took it by surprise.

These are just a few of the sightings I had while walking the beach early in the morning…every day is different!

The Herring are here!

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What a difference a few days can make! They are a little late this year but the herring are finally here…

All those dark squiggly lines are fish. We mostly get two kinds of herring here, the blueback herring and the more common alewives. All herring are what are known as anadromous fish. They live in salt water except to breed and lay eggs. For that they need to migrate to fresh water.

If you click on these images you will get a better view of the fish but you can see how well camouflaged they are. These guys know the real meaning of swimming upstream and you can watch them swim up the waterfalls and inclines even against rushing water.

Watching the herring and alewives arrive each spring is a true Cape Cod tradition and something many of us look forward to every year. I am linking to the Mass Fish and Wildlife page that gives updated information on this annual event and rules that accompany it now that the fishery numbers have declined dramatically.

If you have a chance to go to a herring run, please do. It is a sight you won’t soon forget and kids love it. Watch the gulls, herons and ospreys gather all along the creeks and rivers to take advantage of the huge numbers of fish, too. If you ever wondered why herring gulls are so named, you won’t after you see them feasting on the fish…they swallow them whole!

These pictures were taken this morning at the Brewster Herring Run on Stony Brook Rd.

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?