Sounds like gulls to me, dropping the mussels to crack them open, though I
suppose crows could do the same.

Stewart Wechsler
Seattle
ecostewart at quidnunc.net

-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Rahne Kirkham
Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2003 2:11 PM
To: tweeters
Subject: Birds at Saltwater State Park 12/27


I went to Saltwater State Park today and, in the midst of the varied weather
of the day, I saw a huge number of Surf Scoters feeding merrily on what
looked like shellfish, two White-Winged Scoters, both Common and Barrows
Goldeneye, two cormorants in the water and one drying his wings on a buoy,
one merganser too far away to determine species and, of course,
Glaucous-Winged Gulls.
Can anyone explain the following phenomenon: there were mussel shells
everywhere, on the ground, all over the parking lot, the picnic benches and
the sea-wracked logs? How did they all get there? There were easily a
thousand broken shells. Was this the remnants of a gull feeding frenzy? Did
it rain mussels? Some of them were quite far from the beach.
Rahne Kirkham
Federal Way, Washington
"I am in Love and out of Him I will not go."
C.S.Lewis "The Great Divorce"

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