Open Wide…by Brad Marks

First off, let’s welcome Brad and Jan who are now safely back from assignment across the pond. Can’t wait to read about all their finds in future posts.

As for us, we are officially out of the Rio Grande Valley now and technically on the homeward phase of our southern migration. Currently outside San Antonio at one of my favorite parks in Texas, Guadalupe River State Park. Unfortunately, it is rainy and cold but far “birdier” than expected – added 11 birds for the year here so far, which officially puts me over 200 species for this year’s Average Year. (link here). Right on par with my 2023 high water mark and well above last year’s 325 mark. Now 2/3rds of the way to the 300 goal and we haven’t even made it out of the first month. Best part is we continue to meet wonderful people from near and far. Before I forget, I need to apologize to the couple from Canada I met today as I accidentally gave them a bad ID. Somehow a Downy Woodpecker I was tracking in a nearby tree secretly swapped in a Ladderback WP when I was distracted. Just noticed the error when I was reviewing my shots – Downy, Downy, hot mess of twigs, Downy, crappy shot of a tree trunk, Downy, Downy, Ladderback WTH hehehe. Sorry about that. Ironically, the Merlin Photo ID functionality I was showing you at the time was correct (to the rest of the fine people conversed with on today’s hike, no other errors were discovered ha).

While I catch up on the techy birding paperwork and start drawing up this year’s stretch goals for the staff, going to turn you over to Brad to update you with another assignment from across the pond.

Take it away Brad…

No, this isn’t about dentists, so you can all relax — this won’t hurt a bit.

Jan and I had the recent fortune of being able to visit with her English relatives in, where else, England. The extended family (Jan’s cousin Louise and her husband Steve, Louise’s mum Margaret and dad John, the pups Finn and Red, and Jan and I) decided to take an October holiday.  We stayed in a thatched roof cottage in Dorset near the English Channel.  During one of the “warmer” days (upper 40’s Fahrenheit) most of us took a trip seaside (John elected to stay warm in the cottage).  In October you ask?  Yes, why not.

All of us enjoyed the trip through the English countryside (via the C-roads) to Lyme Regis on the coast of the English Channel.  For those unfamiliar with C-roads across the pond, think of a very narrow single-lane road lined with tall hedge sprouting from the edge of the pavement.  I forgot to mention, there is still two-way traffic on a C-road.  Steve was driving, thankfully, (not quite sure they trust my driving on the other side of the road yet after the sunroof incident) and secured one of the eight parking spaces near the beach.  Once Steve paid the small fee to park the car (I didn’t have any of the English parking apps on my phone), we started a stroll along the beach.  Remember, this is taking place in October in England.  That means the words “beach” and “shivering “will most likely appear in the same sentence.

Lyme Regis is known for many things, but the most recent famous fact anyone can recall is Mary Anning’s discovery of the first plesiosaur skeleton in 1823.  At the time, women simply didn’t do archeology (Jurassic thinking, by the way) so her work was largely dismissed by the establishment.  Oh sure, the establishment took the credit.  However, none of the credit made it to Mary until after her passing.  She also discovered the first known pterosaur (later to be called a pterodactyl) outside of Germany.  Mary pioneered the study of coprolites (fossilized poo).  Sort of poetic with the times she lived in, don’t you think?

The area around Lyme Regis has become known as the Jurassic Coast.

Hit the jump to learn about some Gully behavior.

Enough of the ancient stuff, this is supposed to be about modern birds.  Though, I really would have liked to have taken a photo of a pterodactyl in flight.  I’ve learned through my assignments for Wildlife Intrigued, that you don’t always find the sharpest feathers in the flock.  But if I do pay attention, I can sometimes find some unusual or seldom observed behavior.  No, this story isn’t about birds pooping, though I do have dozens of photos of that activity if you are interested (reply in the comments).  This is about a mundane activity that all animals do, though admittedly, I’m not sure if fish exhibit this behavior. (I found out later that fish yawn too.)

Identifying juvenile gulls is a tough task, at least for me it is.  I find it difficult to tell who they are until their adult plumage grows in.  Even then, identification is not always a slam dunk.  At one point, when using online tools, I could have sworn that the image used for each type of gull was identical between the variously named gulls.  Is it a European Herring Gull, a Great Black-backed Gull, or a Lesser Black-backed Gull?  Since today’s subject wasn’t standing next to a ruler or yardstick; size wasn’t easy to determine.  However, adults were nearby, making identification more likely.

After much studying and comparing photos, this is a European Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) the beneficiary of a recent four-way split of the Herring Gull.  The others becoming the American, the Mongolian, and the Vega Gull (no relation to Chevy cars of old).  It is a +1 for Jan and I.  Hey, does that mean I have to go rename all of my other Herring Gull photos?  Does eBird take care of that for me?

I realize tourists with very large cameras may be uninteresting, but yawning directly in my face might be considered impolite. 

Websites differ on the use of a yawn in the animal kingdom.  Some say it’s to take a deeper breath than is normally possible.  Boring.  Some say it’s to practice opening the gullet as wide as possible to ingest as much food as possible in one gulp.  Plausible.  Or perhaps, the one yawning is simply bored with current events.  Bingo!

I can tell this is wrapping up now; tongue curl-age has begun.  The yawn sequence took just about as long as it does in humans, a couple of seconds.  I was trying not to laugh too hard while taking photos for fear I’d mess up the framing and miss the shot.  Good thing I wasn’t recording in video mode or you would have heard me laughing.

When they aren’t yawning and seeming to be lazy like this one, Herring Gulls (At least the European variety) may keep themselves occupied by dropping shelled prey from great heights to help break up the shell.  They are also adept at fishing and have been known to use bits of bread as bait to catch small fish.  Contrary to their name, they aren’t known to prey on herring.  According to the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), the European Herring Gull is a species of least concern in most of their range.

Excuse me . . . {yawn} . . . this seems to be catching.  It was time to continue our stroll on the beach exploring the quaint seaside village.  Being past the end of the beach season, all of the shops were shut.  Since the shivering had commenced while walking along the beach, we hustled back to the car.  Steve cranked up the heater for the ride back to the cottage.  The pups seemed to be the most pleased with the heated seats.

Thank you for reading.  If you want to see more European Herring Gull photos, please visit here.

Credits:

Thanks again to Jan for proofreading and editing.