'Even Gulls Eat Lobster Sometimes'

Back to Odiorne State Park today (09-23) for a day on the trails photographing Warblers. It has been a hot spot for many weeks with all kinds of cool species being reported. Then I was going to hit the 2nd pull out south of the park for the Shorebird Show that was continuing to produce some great migrants.

First, I slept thru my damn alarm, so I got there later than planned... hours later :-
My chair worked very well there... a new photograph may come up soon... I have to look at them first.
I saw a number of Blue Jays and a bunch of Cat Birds. One Sparrow, a White-throated, and a possible House Wren... I need to check those photos.
BUT... not a single Warbler to be seen. I did see a small compact streak zoom into a tree nearby, but never saw anything else after close inspection. I think it just zoomed thru the tree and keep on going.

By this time the tide was going out, so it was time to head back to the truck, load my chair and hit the pullout. (The best time for shorebirds is on an outgoing tide... they like to get the freshly exposed mud flats and wrack that is timing with yummy stuff to eat). As I got to the truck, the smell of dog shit that I had been smelling on and off for a while was there again. Oh no I thought... I looked down and yep... my right drive tire was caked with the stuff. I love dogs... I hate their irresponsible owners! It took me a half hour laying in the parking lot using weed stems to scrape the shit out of each individual tread. Then I drove over to a grassy area and spun around like a ballerina... then hit a coarse sand spot that I knew was not deep and spun around there as well to coat what was left. What a pain.

I waited on the rocks for the Shorebirds to arrive. And waited... the sun was going down... then a Gull of all things gave me some entertainment with a Lobster it found. It dragged it onto the rocks and screamed to the Gull world that it had food. Then it proceeded to consume the whole thing... but could not get the big claw down. It finally spit the whole thing out, which was when a second Gull came and fought over who was going to eat the tail! The lobster split in two... one got the tail, the other the claw and body. I love the image with the claw on the Gull's beak.

After the light was totally gone, I noticed movement out by the receding waters edge. Shorebirds finally showed up. Juvenile Semipalmated Plovers!! Two of them. Just two.

The Gull with the Lobster made the day worth while, as well as a whole bunch of crashing wave images I took.

Herring Gull (HERG) *See note below*
South of Odiorne Point State Park
Rye, NH, USA 09-23-17

*Note* This is one of those instances where two species would have the same banding code, so this bird has the first three letters of the first word and the first letter of the second... due to Heermann's Gull.

Canon EOS 7D Mark II, EF500mm f-4L IS USM
ISO 400, f-4.5, 1-1600th Sec., (EFL) 800mm
Hand Held. Cropped for Composition.
Manual Mode, Partial Metering, Auto White Balance
Edit Flow: Selected and previewed in Adobe Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw with final editing in Photoshop.
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