Subject: [Tweeters] Gull with sea star
Date: Nov 13 16:11:20 2008
From: B&PBell - bellasoc at isomedia.com


Hi All

Like Brett, and others, I have been able to take the time to watch a gull with a starfish. The process seems to be that the gull grabs the starfish and gets an arm or two down its mouth. At that point the starfish spreads its "legs" and the gull settles down. It seemed to me that the gull stays very still until the starfish "relaxes" - the gull then gulps the star down a little further. This process continues until the star is fully swallowed and is a large bulge in the throat/neck of the gull. The process can be variable in time - the first time I sat and watched it the gull already had the star just in its mouth and it took 45 minutes to get it down.

Like many, the first time I saw it I figured that the gull had most likely taken on too much and was a goner. Having seen the end result many times now I think it is the star that is the goner.

Brian H. Bell
Birding & Natural History Guide
Woodinville WA
mail to bell asoc at isomedia dot com
----- Original Message -----
From: Brett Wolfe
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu ; birdmandea at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 7:49 PM
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Gull with sea star


I have actually sat and watched a gull for over an hour (while taking a break from sea kayaking up in BC) as it struggled with a sea star of roughly the same size. It takes a while, but they will get it down. I've come across a number of gulls since with a sea star in a similar predicament, but they all seem able to work it down. Cool pic Dea!

Brett A. Wolfe
Seattle, WA
m_lincolnii at yahoo.com

--- On Wed, 11/12/08, birdmandea at aol.com <birdmandea at aol.com> wrote:

From: birdmandea at aol.com <birdmandea at aol.com>
Subject: [Tweeters] Gull with starfish
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Date: Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 5:07 PM


Greetings.
Over the past weekend we went to Vancouver B.C. Bird wise nothing very notable. I did come across a Gull that had caught a starfish too large to swallow. I have seen this once before in person and a couple photos over the years. I guess my question to the group is, could this gull dislodge this starfish by it's self or is this the end of both of them?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25348030 at N07/3025537622/

Good birding, take care
Dea
Steilacoom WA





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