Ray Collier Country Diary- Herring Gulls

29th September 2008 - Herring Gulls

One of the commonest birds in and around Inverness is the herring gull and they can be seen in the various firths, parks, gardens, car parks, bus stations, rivers and lochs, in fact virtually anywhere. Because of its size and numbers it has been the subject of many studies over the years but there are still two mysteries about them. One of these is regarding its methods of feeding and the other over its name. As for food, this gull is truly omnivorous, in other words they will eat any type of food indiscriminately. One method of feeding is along the shoreline to get into shell fish that are too hard for the bird’s beak to break open. The birds tear them off the rocks and then fly up and drop them onto a hard surface. It may take several attempts to do this but the method has its problems.
Some birds, such as other gulls and crows, have learnt to wait until the shell hits the ground and then they rush forward. The point is that by the time the gull that took the shell up into the air has flown down again the food has gone. One gull at Cromarty overcame this problem as when it flew up into the air at the last moment instead of just dropping the shell it jerked its head violently and threw the shell several feet higher. This meant that by the time the shell smashed on the ground the gull was well on its way to grab the spoils. Whilst this approach may seem to be innovative so is the mysterious way it feeds when on short grassland. Any roadside grassy verge will do, even roundabouts and, of course, fields and parks. You can see them doing this right close to roads so these days they can often be seen in and around Inverness. The bird stands on one spot and patters with its feet almost as though it is dancing. This encourages worms to come to the surface and the gull quickly grabs them. The mystery is whether the pattering feels like rain to the worms or does the vibration sound to the worm like a mole it has to escape from? For the first part of their lives the chicks and juvenile birds are fed by the adults who regurgitate their food. The way the young birds stimulates the adults to bring up their food is to peck at the red spot on the lower part of the beak. This vivid red spot can be seen on the photograph that was taken on the sea wall at Nairn.
As for the name "herring" gulls it seems to be a mystery as to why they were given this name as whilst they will take this fish they also take a wide variety of others. It has been called a herring gull since the 17th century so the origin seems to have been lost in time. Herring means " army" in Old Norse so perhaps it came from the sheer numbers of the birds, like a host or army. Apart from its main call notes that have been described as similar to laughter they also have a plaintive mewing cry that in the Highlands has given it the Scots name of cat gull. Others include silvery gull, white maa and greyback. The Gaelic name is Faoileag-an-sgadain meaning seagull of the herring. One of the myths about the herring gull is about weather as the old Scottish rhyme goes
"Sea-gull, sea-gull, sit on the sand;
It’s never good weather when you’re on the land"