Tuesday, February 8, 2022

So Many Sea Gulls!


I have never seen so many seagulls just floating on the water together!  And I am down at the beach a lot, walking along the shore, as you know.  There was very little wind, and I think the tide was nearly high, but I just can't imagine why such a large group is floating here like this.  It doesn't seem a common sight, in my experience.  So I wasn't sure whether to call these birds Gulls or Seagulls, or Herring Gulls.  I decided to check Wikipedia to get an answer.  "Gulls or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari.  They are most closely related to the terns (family Sternidae) and only distantly related to auks, skimmers and even more distantly to waders.  Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed in the genus Larus, but that arrangement is now considered Polyphyletic, leading to the resurection of several genera."   I guess that didn't help much.  But I do think that some of them may be "Herring Gulls."  Please click on the image to make it larger and to better see how many gulls there actually are here!   

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