One of the special delights I enjoy when out on the water – or simply walking around the shoreline – is the variety and diversity of shorebirds. From the magnificent albatross that lives most of its life at sea, to the diminutive sand pipers scurrying to and fro as the waves lick up the beach and back, the variety of avian inhabitants and their various behaviors never ceases to give me pause.
First on my list would have to be seagulls. There are some 50 separate species of seagulls throughout the world, from the great black-backed with its five-foot wingspan and weighing in at around 5 pounds to the little gull, which weighs in at around 4 ounces. Throughout North America, there are some 28 recognized varieties, many of which can be found residing along our eastern seaboard. Some of the more common to be found would be the American herring gull, with pale grey backs, pinkish legs and yellow beaks with a red spot; the ring billed gull sporting that distinct black ring around their yellow bill, and yellow legs; and THE most recognized, the laughing gull, with a solid black hood (which fades to grey in winter) and it’s all so familiar high pitched “laughing” screech which to me, it the definitive sound of the shore.
Yes, seagulls can be a nuisance, a BIG nuisance, given their boldness and propensity to swoop out of nowhere to snatch a snack. But I don’t fault them for having evolved into a top-notch opportunistic scavenger, even when I’ve turned my back on the picnic table for a minute and thus became a victim of aerial theft, and that’s because I respect them. A seagull is a tough bird. I mean TOUGH! I’ve been out on the beach in a winter gale and who’s just standing out on the beach enduring it all? Yep, seagulls. I’m also fascinated by a particular behavior they have, and that’s when they come across an intact clam, pick it up in their beak, take off and then drop it on concrete, asphalt, or a sturdy wooden dock to smash it and get to the clam’s insides. Amazing learned behavior.
One final thing about seagulls is that you’ve never seen a baby one. Ever wonder why? It’s because, as tough as they are, the mothers never let them leave the nest hidden deep in the marshes until they are fully grown.
Next on my list would be ducks. Around the world, there are around 130-160 species, with around 30-40 species here in the U.S., broken down into two primary groups: Dabbling ducks (a.k.a. “Puddle ducks”) that feed by tipping forward in shallow water to graze on water plants, and diving ducks that will go completely submerged in deeper water for aquatic plants and the occasional small minnow.
Amongst dabbling ducks are the blue-winged teal, wood ducks, northern pintails, and mallards. Common diving ducks include buffleheads, redheads, canvasbacks, and scaups.
From my observations, ducks have the most intricate social structures with a strict “pecking order,” and when it involves fledglings, there’s always bound to be a ruckus as females without chicks always want to play stepmother, resulting in feathers flying as mothers fight like savages to protect their precious young. Regardless, anyone who’s ever seen that adorable line of eight to ten fuzzy little ducklets paddling hard behind their mother has no doubt seen their numbers dwindle as you see them every few days until around two are left to become fully grown.
I’m especially fond of ducks for two particular reasons. First, the way they land on water is so cool! They glide in low, drop their air speed, spread their legs and literally water ski as they touch down. I’d love to spend an hour doing that. Second is when, on very still waters, as a duck paddles around, it literally leaves a V-shaped wake in its path as though they were some small boat just putting along.
Although not seen very often in the northeastern U.S., pelicans are a fixture of the coast in the southeast. They range the world over on every continent, save Antarctica, but there are only eight separate species. And those eight are divided into two groups: tree nesters and ground nesters. Unlike most other bird species, pelicans live relatively long lives – 10-25 years – yet in captivity have been known to live twice that long.
For as ungainly as they are when waddling about land, when in flight, pelicans are the most graceful gliders in the world, usually flying so close to the surface that their wing tips dip in the water.
Pelicans also hold the distinction of suffering from a massive misconception about their life cycle or, more specifically, how they die, a miss truth even I once fell prey to. You’ll hear it said that most pelicans die as a result of going blind from their constant dives from above for fish, or when older, they break their necks from that same continuous splash diving. Wrong.
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “Pelicans have several adaptations to diving, including air sacs beneath the skin on their breasts that serve as cushions and floats. While diving, they also rotate their bodies to the left, probably to avoid injury to their trachea and esophagus, which are on the right side of the neck. They further explain that most reports of blindness in pelicans are “for other reasons, including infections resulting from disease.” Discarded hooks and lines are also common culprits for pelican mortality.
And now we come to those deliberate, slow strutting, then lightning-fast shallow water strikers, herons and egrets, another family of relatively common coastal birds. Truth be told, there isn’t a whole lot of biological difference between the two other than size and coloring (of both plumage and legs). They are both long legged, long necked and eat fish… with the exception of the cattle egret, which lives inland and, as its name would suggest, feeds in fields, following cows and horses around for the insects they stir up with their hooves.
All herons and egrets share one significant and unique trait, which is the ability to transform themselves from a statuesque, upright, long-necked creature into a compact package by tucking (folding, really) their uniquely S-shaped necks, which have twice the number of vertebrae we humans have (21-25 versus 10). When tucked in, these bones stack and coil upon each other and it’s this construction that gives them the ability to uncoil this “spring,” thrusting its neck and dagger-like bill forward with considerable power and precision. And then, seemingly against all odds, they slap around and tenderize that fish they grabbed, then swallow it whole as you see it slide down their neck.
Next up, the King of the Coast, in my humble estimation, the osprey. One of the most widespread raptors in the world, known globally. They migrate thousands of miles between southern wintering regions and northern breeding grounds.
The ultimate coastal bird of prey. You can watch YouTube videos of an osprey literally underwater, using its wings most uniquely, like a waterborne helicopter, rising to the surface with a fish half its own mass, and then eventually becoming airborne, and as it flies, it manipulates the fish with its talons until the fish is oriented headfirst into the wind to reduce drag. It’s an amazing thing to witness. In flight, they are distinctively shaped, holding their wings in a bowed M-shape. And they have a reversible outer toe allow them to grip with two facing forward and two backward. Barbed pads on their feet make sure slippery fish aren’t lost.
And of the aforementioned ducks, I’ve seen an osprey swoop in on ducklet number three, apparently when there’s no fish. It was harsh and ugly, but natural.
The stare of the osprey is unique amongst birds of prey in that its eyesight is 19x better than the human eye. They have a transparent nictitating membrane (basically a third eyelid) that protects their eyes from the impact of diving into the water.
And to wrap it up, a few Honorable Mentions:
-Black skimmers. On a calm piece of water, they swoop in low, open their elongated “candycorn” mandible and literally skim the surface to scoop up small fish. If it’s quiet enough, you can hear the sound of their bill slicing through the water. Uncanny evolution.
-Cormorants. These duck-like birds feed by diving and swimming beneath the water, using their webbed feet to propel themselves to find small fish. The most notable trait of this bird is that you’ll often see them in the distinct posture of holding out their wings to dry. This is because their feathers are not as waterproof as those of other water birds, making them less buoyant, which makes it easier for them to move about underwater.
-And lastly, Kingfishers, if for no other reason than having such a solid name! They also possess vibrant blue, green and/or orange plumage (depending upon the particular species) and are experts at hovering then diving headfirst to catch fish. The kingfisher’s unique beak shape, which slices through the water without creating a splash, inspired the nose cones of Japan’s high-speed “bullet trains” to eliminate sonic booms in tunnels.
You can learn a lot sometimes by simply watching birds.