More Seagulls – The Ring-Billed Gull

This is interesting. I took a ton of photos this week and a bunch of the seagulls. I’ve been doing some research since my blog post yesterday to find out exactly which species of seagulls I photographed. The research is almost as exciting as photographing them!

I discovered through my research that these gulls are the Ring-Billed Gull. They are perhaps the most common gull seen today. They do migrate and actually spend a lot of time inland. In fact, some never even see the ocean. They are also sometimes referred to as “fast food gulls” because they can often be found scavenging at fast food restaurants. They are also sometimes referred to flying garbage men because they often eat garbage left behind by humans. They are mostly scavengers but also eat fish and other small aquatic animals.

Their primary identification mark is the black ring near the front of their bill, hence their name: Ring-Billed Gull.

Females produce between 2 to 4 eggs that are laid on a hollow on the ground sometimes filled with grass or debris. Both the male and the female take turns sitting on the eggs to incubate them. Eggs hatch anywhere within 21 – 28 days.

So, yeah, I learned a lot more than I figured I would about these gulls all because I captured these photographs. Fascinating!

Seagulls

Tuesday was a day of adventure. It started out at Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary and ended at Sandy Beach State Park. Birds from osprey to seagulls were the subjects in front of my camera and I had a blast!

Seagulls are common birds that elicit thoughts of the beach and the ocean. They are often seen by everyone visiting the beach and yet are fascinating to observe. While our daughter, Lydia, was swimming in the bay, I spent some time with gulls. They were not very happy to have me chasing them around, so I just casually moved down the beach hoping to get closer to some gulls as I went. This strategy worked much better and before long I was composing seagull photos and clicking the shutter release. This was great photography to me because the subjects were all around. All I had to do was be cautious about the backgrounds and shoot away. This is relatively easy wildlife photography!

How many of you go to the beach? How many of you have photographs of seagulls?

As the evening wore on, I found myself trying harder to get quality photos of the gulls. My wife shook her head and actually laughed at me when I got down on my stomach to take some low-level shots of two gulls. Hey, I was taught that eye-level to the subject is the goal, so I didn’t think this was so outrageous! Actually, I do prefer low-angle shots. For example, when I shoot a baseball game I almost always wear knee pads and kneel along the first-base or third-base side of the field. This low-angle perspective helps focus attention on the player, which is exactly what I want to focus on.

The gulls at Sandy Point State Park made beautiful subjects; don’t you think?