This fascinating story [about a gull eating a pigeon that had just
seconds before hit a window and been stunned] was followed by a
question whether taking of "relatively-live" prey was common in
gulls. Back east, the Great Black-backed Gull is well known by
several biologists to be one of the fiercest predators around -
probably somewhere after Great Horned Owls, Cats, hawks,
raccoons, and foxes, of course. I've heard stories about them
killing Black Ducks, and I remember a cheap little paperback about
sea birds I had that showed shearwaters making up 40% of the black-
back's diet. While I have always had problems with that statistic,
it may be possible on some rocky seabird island somewhere. I've come
across gulls feeding on pigeons before and wondered whether they
killed it or what. I can tell you from experience that you don't want
to get your finger caught in a large gull's beak; it hurts somewhat
more than a Barred Owl or a Cooper's Hawk's bite. So knowing that
large gulls can be predatory, I don't see that this story is that
atypical.

But as an account of human behavior [the clerk who rushed out to save
the pigeon] this story was all too familiar to me. I spent three
days a few years ago trying to catch a Great Blue Heron that had been
"rescued" by some well-meaning person from a Northern Harrier. They
said that it wasn't "natural" for a Harrier to attack such a large
and beautiful bird. (The gull's attack probably seemed equally
"unnatural" to the clerk.) As for the "rescued" heron, one wing was
broken and the forehead continued to bleed even the next day. He/she
didn't fly but was more than capable of walking quickly out of reach.
Meanwhile, a presumably very hungry Harrier was frustrated and
never seen again. I wish people could resist the powerful
natural urge most of us feel to save every animal in distress and let
nature be. In retrospect, it seems stupid that I wasted so much time
trying to catch that heron and "correct" some of the other person's
mistake; I probably would have had to euthanize it if I had caught it.

Sorry this response relied so heavily on anecdotes; does anyone else
have more detailed info about gull eating habits?

Speaking of cats (just a quick question), most rehabbers are convinced
that the average cat that doesn't seem to be killing birds is
scratching dozens who escape from its clutches. The fear is that cat
scratches are loaded with lethal bacteria like Staphylococcus and
that all those birds that "got away" die within a few days. Does
anyone know just how true that is?

Peter Whitlock
Boise State University