Late this afternoon in the mouth of Fall Creek between Jetty Woods and Stewart Park (Ithaca), there were dozens of immature Herring and Ring-billed Gulls (the adults having migrated off to breed) circling around low and occasionally dropping briefly to the water. Every time, the gull would fly up with a small silver fish in its mouth, which was soon swallowed in flight with almost no pursuit by other gulls. Their success rate and lack of conflict were remarkable. The fish seemed easy for them to catch. I am ignorant about fish, but I'm guessing these might have been Smelt on their way upstream to spawn. As always, I was glad I'm not a fish. Fish have it tough with so many piscivorous birds around, although I did not see anyone besides the gulls partaking there.
--Dave Nutter -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
