Laughing Gull with Starfish

Laughing Gull - IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

One flew by that had obviously caught something

Every October, Wild Boyz Photography celebrates the weird and wild side of nature. This is a series of photographs of a laughing gull capturing and eating a starfish. I had walked out on the rocks at a jetty near where I live in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. I was photographing the seals on the nearby low tide islands.

Harbor Seals

As is common along the coast, there were lots of gulls flying around. One flew by that had obviously caught something. It flew by so quickly I had not had time to see what it was the laughing gull had caught. Below is the first photograph I was able to take.

The laughing gull then landed on a rock down the jetty from where I was. I watched through my 600 mm zoom lens as the laughing gull was trying to penetrate the hard endoskeleton of the starfish. The starfish’s skeleton is made of small plates called ossicles. The laughing gull was using its beak as an axe to drive into the starfish. Eventually the laughing gull was able to break off the end of one of the five arms, as you can see in the photo below.

Willet

The starfish’s skeleton is made of small plates called ossicles

It did not take long for other nearby gulls to take notice of this catch. The local gulls started flocking to the scene. Some of them were aggressively swooping in, in hopes of stealing a meal. The original laughing gull was able to defend itself from the other intruders. As the gull dismantled the starfish, it got down to the last two arms of the starfish. Another gull was attempting to steal this last part of the starfish. The original laughing gull realized he could not put the starfish down because the other birds would steal it. So, in the blink of an eye, the laughing gull tilted its head back and swallowed the two remaining arms of the starfish. It was surprising and impressive that the gull was able to accommodate it!