Letter: Not a flock of seagulls, but Northern Gannets
An observant reader who saw the photo on the front page of last week’s Gazette-Journal called to say that the swarming birds photographed by another reader, Suzi Maloney, from her home in Susan were not seagulls, but rather a flock of Northern Gannets.
Robert James of Bena called to say that the birds make their pass through the area every spring, following schools of menhaden and diving into the water to catch their prey.
“I watch them all the time,” James said. “It’s unbelievable.” The gull-like birds are noted for the reckless abandon they exhibit when they plunge into the water.
We also received this letter (and accompanying photo) from a rather young birding enthusiast:
The unusual flock of birds that was out on the bay (pictured on the front page of the April 3 Gazette) was actually a big flock of migrating Northern Gannets and fulmars, native to the Hebrides Islands. I know this because I saw them too—at Bethel Beach on Tuesday, April 1 and again on Wednesday, April 2 on the Mobjack Bay at my house in Port Haywood—and I know a gannet’s cries anywhere and fulmars’ beaks anywhere, which have three segments: the top segment is cut off so they can breathe, the two lower segments are used for catching big sizes of fish.
Shaelyn Eck (age 9)
Port Haywood, Va.