On 25 May 2001, Cliff Drake wrote:

> This reminds me of the time I saw a gull eat a starfish, it grabbed an
> arm and whacked the starfish on the concrete until the arm tip broke
> off. After eating the tip the gull repeated the process on the next
> arm.

That's one whole lot more of a reasonable approach than that taken by
a Herring Gull I observed at Camano Island State Park (February 1994)
downing a sea star whole. It attracted my attention when it flew
ashore carrying something large, which once I moved in closer I
identified as an Evasterias troschelli. The gull was carrying the sea
star with 2 or 3 of its arms clamped in its bill. Soon the gull had
begun swallowing 3 of the sea star's arms. The sea star's other 2
arms were wide-spread cross-wise to the gull's throat. Over a period
of ~10 minutes the gull incrementally swallowed the sea star.

Thought not in my notes, I seem to remember that the gull then stood
on the beach seemingly stunned by what it had just done.

Again, in November 2000, I saw a Herring Gull attempting to eat a sea
star at Ocean Shores. This time I did not see it actually swallow the
sea star.


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Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington
dcanning at igc.org
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