Towheeblog

Gulls don’t get enough credit. In the open ocean you don’t see gulls. Now a long-winged, speeding albatross is something to behold but they don’t come as near, don’t often look you in the eye the way a gull might. A mass of swirling Sooty Shearwaters can be amazing to behold, but they are rarely close and slow enogh to see their eyes. Nearer shore the gulls are usually the most obvious and numerous of birds using the wind. Standing on a pier or cliff top along the wind cleansed Oregon Coast this past week, I took time to enjoy the passing parade. That parade was gulls, young and old, dark and light, riding the wind, surfing the air. They would sometime pass at thirty miles er hour or more, wings fixed, tail ruddering, sliding sideways through the gusts.

SITTING GULL
Juvenile Heermann’s Gull
Adult Western Gulls.
Juvenile California Gull.
Western Gulls on the fishing dock at Port Orford, loafing where the buuildings protect them from the wind.