That's a pretty common gull behavior as far as I know.
At New York City & New Jersey beaches, especially birding the Long Island coast
for winter ducks & seal-watching, we would always be sure to park far from the
water to avoid shell dings in the car.
It seems to take the immature gulls a while to catch on...often the younger
ones drop shells in the water instead of on pavement and cars.
--elisabeth
---- Brenda Tekin <brenda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
=============
I've read about the behavior of Golden Eagle dropping turtles onto hard
surfaces to crack open the shell in order to access the meat. However, I
don't recall seeing this behavior in birds until yesterday.
While on a non-birding trip with husband and my dad (celebrating his 85th
birthday) to Wallops Island to visit family, I took them on a quick side
tour of Chincoteague NWR late afternoon. Driving down the main road, the
vehicle in front of us stopped as a 2nd year Herring Gull dropped down in
front of it. We lost sight of the bird for a few seconds until it flew up
and we noted it was carrying a small object wrapped in wet seaweed-like
vegetation. The lead vehicle moved forward on as the gull slowly flew
directly over the roadway, make a short 1/2 turn over the right shoulder
before moving back over the road where it dropped the shell onto the hard
pavement in front of us. The gull dropped, landing on the left lane of the
road and slowly walked toward the shell that was dead center in our lane.
It turned the shell, picked it up and then flew off making a half turn over
the right shoulder of the road once again, turning back and dropped the
shell onto the road for a 3rd time, apparently without cracking it open. It
retrieved the shell and flew off to make a 4th attempt. We drove on leaving
the Herring Gull and oyster behind.
In a search on this behavior in gulls, I came across an interesting report
in Short Communications - Auk Vol 95 "The Development of Shell-cracking
Behavior in Herring Gulls," Agnar Ingolfsson and Bruce T. Estrella.
http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v095n03/p0577-p0579.pdf
--------------------------------------------------------------
Brenda Tekin
Charlottesville, VA
"Leave behind what you find; if you must take something, take pictures."
Digital Photography, including Birds of Virginia:
http://www.birdsofvirginia.com
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