Herring Seagull in Full Flight

by John Telfer

Title

Herring Seagull in Full Flight

Artist

John Telfer

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

FAA WATERCOLOR MARK DOES NOT APPEAR ON FINAL SALES
Caught this Herring Seagull in full flight with his gray and white wings fully extended as he was flying over the ocean on the north shore of Long Island in Bayville.
The herring gull, Larus argentatus, is the most common species found in the United States.
These gulls average 20 inches in length and have a 55 inch wing span.
The females are slightly larger than the males.
They have white heads, tails and undersides.
Their wings backs are light grey, tipped with black with white spots
They have pinkish legs and their bills are yellow with a little red dot on either side.
The young �first winter� herring gulls are a mottled brown with darker brown at the wing tips and tail.
The �second winter� herring gull shows more white on its head and undersides but its wing tips and tail are still dark.
Herring gulls show their adult plumage by their third winter.�
Herring gulls reach their sexual maturity between 3 and 7 years of age.
Herring gulls are colonial but each male claims his own territory in the colony in the spring.
This may entail some squabbling with his neighbors, but it will eventually be sorted out.
Then he begins to court a mate. �He will mate for life and will only have to find another mate if the old one has died.
When the territory and personnel situation is finalized, the pairs settle down to building round nests of grass, seaweed and other plant matter.�
The female lays 2 or 3 eggs that are brownish olive in color with black markings.
Both parents take turns sitting on the eggs and the incubation period is about a month.
After hatching the chicks are fed, at first, regurgitated food by both parents.
A herring gull chick knows to peck on the red spot on the parent�s bill which stimulates it to release the food.
When the chick gets older the parents drop pieces of food by the nest for it.
The chick will stay close to the nest until it fledges in 4 to 6 weeks.
Until the chicks are fledged, the parents defend their young by flying at predators to scare them away and shrieking alarms to signal the chicks to return to the nest.
Herring gulls raise only one brood of young per year.
Herring gulls spend their winters away from the colony, with the younger birds traveling farther south than the breeding adults.
The oldest known herring gull in captivity was 44 years old.�
The herring gull�s preferred diet is fish, crustaceans and shellfish but it will also take eggs and small birds, even of its own kind.
It hunts on the shore and docks for dead marine animals and in dumps and waste bins for edible matter of all sorts.
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October 5th, 2012

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