The Gull versus the Sweetgum Ball

One of the cool things about big flocks of gulls, like the one I can across this past weekend, is the opportunity to see a wide variety of behaviors.  Gulls, being gregarious and intelligent, are nearly always good for something interesting.  It may have something to do with the arrogant way in which they seem to believe that any even marginally edible item is their’s for the taking.  Take, for instance, this incident I had with an ambitious Ring-billed Gull this past weekend who had managed to snatch the one thing that a gull’s swiss army knife bill is probably unable to crack, a sweetgum ball.

Scene 1: The gull proudly marches into the flock, displaying its find.  I wonder, then, if a part of it wondered why none of his colleagues seemed excited at this find.  The arrival of anything with the appearance of food would likely instigate a storm of feathers and fury, but this?  Nothing.  How odd…

Scene 2: Initial attempts to get to the goodness within have proven fruitless.  The gull then walks to the edge of the lake to dunk the gumball in an apparent attempt to soften it, thus making the insides more easily accessible.

Scene 3: This dunking technique does not appear to be successful.  The Sweetgum ball continues to vex our intrepid hero. The other gulls could not be less interested.

Scene 4: The finale.  After several minutes of failed dunking, the gull finally admits defeat.  How can something that looks so tempting fail to give up its secrets?  This gull cannot understand, and the Sweetgum ball is left on the beach, effectively ignored by all.

Gulls are certainly full of surprises.