At the beginning of the shift
I had maybe 45 minutes of peacefully watching two herring
gulls allopreening and doing begging behavior, that is
pecking at the red spot on the bill. Since they were both
in adult plumage, I figured they must be a pair. Nancy
sometimes calls me
Niko Tinbergen because I
get so into watching gull behavior. I did read The
Herring Gull's World more than once and in fact own
two copies of it (only because my vintage 1950's copy
started falling apart and I found a better hardcover copy
in a used bookstore) and this does sometimes turn into
the diary of gulls and radios. Anyway, the first 45
minutes of the shift was the only quiet time of the whole
shift. After that it was nonstop people all of whom want
to be on the closed area of the beach right this minute
and don't want to hear anything I have to say about
piping plovers. People and gulls are very much alike.
Both are creatures of appetite. Either I'm
anthropomorphizing the gulls or larimorphizing the
people, but there are definite similarities. OK, so I
made up the word larimorphizing but there are Inuit folk
tales in which people change into gulls so I didn't make
up the concept :-)
A little redhaired girl keeps
running into the closed area of beach and looks like
she's going to keep on barreling northward until she's
out of sight of the rest of her little family group. I
speak to her and to the mother, who assures me she's
keeping an eye on the kid. The woman takes the whole
group on a walk in the other direction, leaving their
picnic lunch and towels behind. A little boy who has been
playing quietly in the sand with his plastic trucks and
plastic boats takes off chasing after the redhaired girl.
I notice that his mother doesn't notice, so dash over and
inform her. She catches him before he gets out of sight.
Apparently he has an older girl cousin with red hair who
is his favorite playmate.
While the redhaired girl's group is
away, a herring gull walks over and grabs their unopened
bag of Doritos. It tries to open it by dropping it, like
it would a quahog. That doesn't work of course. How on
earth does the herring gull know there's anything edible
in the bag anyway? It keeps at it, tearing at it with its
bill, dropping it, and dragging it with no luck. It walks
northward into the closed area of beach, dragging the bag
of Doritos.
People keep coming over and asking
me when the beach will be open. I give the usual piping
plover info. One woman tells me she saw lots of piping
plovers on the Vineyard and they defend their nests by
attacking people and pooping on them. I tell her that
sounds like least terns to me. Piping plovers freeze so
they disappear into the sand. They don't mob people with
pecking and pooping. I have to admit that the least
tern's strategy works much better against humans than the
piping plover's does. Another woman tells me piping
plovers down Kennebunkport nest in the rocks with people
all around. I don't have a response for that one. Rocks?
The pale sandy beings wouldn't exactly blend in with
rocks and they aren't too fond of lots of mammalian
activity, but maybe the ones down Maine are
different.
While I've been talking to the
steady stream of people, the redhaired girl has returned
and is chasing the herring gull in the closed area. I
call after her to get out of there and leave the birds
alone. The mother finally gets it that I really mean it
and herds the kid down to the water where plastic truck
boy is still playing. While they're off extricating
plastic trucks and boats from the rocks and I'm answering
questions about greenheads, the herring gull comes back
and grabs a small unopened bag of chocolate chip cookies.
It succeeds in tearing it open and extracting a cookie.
The gull takes the cookie to the water's edge and drags
it back and forth in the water to soak it before eating
it. It methodically removes another cookie from the bag
and does the same thing. Another gull distracts it from
its catch and it takes off. I fetch the bag with the
remaining cookies and put it back by the Doritos. Later
on, somebody asks me if it's OK to feed the gulls. I
calmly say "No" and refrain from asking "What? Are you
crazy?"
All the while that I 'm chasing
kids and their food, drama is unfolding on the radio.
Units 13 and 14 are calling for help on the beach for an
injured person. Many messages go back and forth between
them and the gatehouse and headquarters. It turns out an
intern fell off an ATV and has a shoulder injury. Ouch. I
reflexively grab my left shoulder and wonder if I should
recommend my surgeon... but there are more kids and gulls
to chase and more impatient people who want to know why
it takes so long for these endangered birds to nest.
Seriously, several people wanted to know why the birds
couldn't reproduce faster so the people could use the
beach. None of the people actually listened to what I had
to say except for the "beach closed" part. And a few of
the kids, including but not limited to the redhaired
girl, didn't listen to that "beach closed" part either. I
kept asklng the same kids to leave the closed area
multiple times.
At some point during all this
constant excitement, Deb came by on the ATV doing her
survey of the beach, particularly the stretch from lot 6
down to the southern boundary to make sure the piping
plovers really aren't using that stretch of beach for
nesting so the refuge can open lots 6 and 7 and the
accompanying stretch of beach tomorrow (beginning of
July) to the public to relieve some of the pressure. I
told her about the two piping plovers I've seen use this
area of beach, most recently about a week and a half ago,
and how they fly in from the south, eat, and fly back
south. That agreed with what other people had observed,
so it looks like they're not nesting in this particular
spot hence this part of the beach will be open tomorrow.
Maybe this will make the people less
impatient.
Deb says there are 6 fledglings, 3
chicks, and 3 nests yet to hatch plus one nest on Sandy
Point. Not bad.
Back at the gatehouse, one of the
gate attendants thanks me for being willing to do the
south boundary because the crowds are so big and
impatient. I tell her "Yes, and they don't listen." I ask
about the intern who fell off the ATV, who is reputed to
have a dislocated shoulder. They say the ambulance took
her to the hospital. I tell them if she needs surgery I
can recommend the guy who put my shoulder back together.
They note that in the log book.
I'm wicked thirsty by this time so
after I turn in the report and the radio at the gatehouse
I stop at Mr. Moe's to get a huge bottle of Poland Spring
water. He asks if I was out keeping an eye on those
piping plovers. "Yes, and keeping the plovers and the
people apart!" I answer. He asks if the greenheads are
out yet. There are a few but they didn't bother me today.
There really aren't many yet. He's impressed that I am
wearing light colored clothes. I know dark colors attract
them and they can bite through denim so I' ve switched to
stone colored chinos and long sleeved white shirts for
the greenhead season. Mr. Moe says he's been telling
people about the greenheads but people don't listen.
"People don't listen," I agree, "about greenheads or
plovers either."
Yup, gulls and people are quite
similar. They like Doritos and chocolate chip cookies,
they think they own the beach, and they don't
listen.
