It's a Gull-Darned Head Scratcher

Only they know for sure...

Here's one of those urban animal mysteries that is sure to keep you occupied for hours and hours if you let it...why the daily morning gull gathering?

I live on the typical urban mid-sized (mid-western) city of Milwaukee.  My house is also located next to a typical green-space (called a "park") carved out between several city blocks in a (mostly) quiet neighborhood.  Granted, Milwaukee is a city on a Great lake so the fact that there are gulls (not "sea" gulls people) frequently spotted anywhere in the vicinity is not news.  However such a large concentration of gulls (mostly Ring-billed gulls each morning no where near the water is a bit of a conundrum.  Each morning I would hear their plaintive cries and maniacal "laughter" through the bedroom window each day as I am getting up.  The other day (at approximately 5:30 AM) curiosity got the better of me and I decided to finally walked the 200 steps over to Enderis Park, for a better look. 

I took the camera, cause I always take the camera.  While we're on the subject; take your OWN camera EVERYWHERE...you just never know what you'll see.  I snapped a few images for the purposes of this blog, however who has not seen a large gathering of gulls right?  Well that crossed my mind too, but snap away I did.  The VIDEO segments are more interesting simply because there's motion and audio too.

So what did I learn from this one stint of gull observation?  Not much really...only a few more questions came to mind.  What I did see and mentally record is the following; the gulls divided themselves into two larger groups; one that seemed to prefer the combination girl's softball / kickball diamond and field and another that took the southern end of the narrow park property, basically doing a sweep of that 1/2 of the grounds, making several "adjustments" by hopping into the air, and moving back north a bit before landing - only to repeat the process.  The entire "show" took about 30 minutes from start to finish.  I paid particular attention to whether or not the Ring-bills were finding (or attempting to find) food in the grass - they were (did) not.  Instead, this morning ritual of typically sea-side avian species seemed to merely be congregating for some larger. more mysterious purpose.  They didn't all land at once, nor did they leave en mass; however the southern group did it's curious sweep and did vacate their chosen area well before the other diamond dwelling conclave.

The ultimate purpose of this morning's "flocking" behavior was lost on me; however that didn't stop me from coming up with several implausible anthropomorphic theories: Perhaps they all meet in Enderis Park each morning to decide the best route each group would take in order to cover the greatest number of unsuspecting citizenry in their chalk-slimy excrement, as they deposit what they have eaten and drank via an aerial carpet bombing campaign?  Maybe this is their birdy equivalent to "let's all meet at Starbucks"?  I guess I'd  prefer to think something a bit more pedantic;  that they enjoy slugs and that each morning as the grass is in full dew-mode, the possibility exists for the greatest number...either that or the early gull gets the worm (or leftover human picnic garbage...yechhhh)

Never the less, they come - each morning - stay for less than 45 minutes - and disappear into the morning sky...the question remains why...why indeed?

The Birds and the Bees

As President of the Enderis Park Bird Watching Club, I very much enjoy the fascinating birding programs that the Program Committee assembles for the club's bi-monthly meetings. The topics covered are and have been very diverse and wide-ranging. (If you'd like to see a listing of all of them, visit this link HERE) But June 5Th, 2008's program was all together new territory for a "bird" watching club; The Birds and the Bees.

Steven Fronk - Bee Man

Now one might conjure up all sorts of (PG and up) ratings for one such program, but I assure you, it is unnecessary. The focus of the evening was on the actual "insect," the bee. Honey Bees to bee more exact. EPBWC member, Steven Fronk himself a beekeeper, brought many of the tools of the trade to the Enderis Park Fieldhouse (Our usual meeting place) for show and tell. The attendees assembled were totally enthralled with the facts and figures of bee-keeping, and Steve was a real "honey" and unbee-lievable story teller as he guided the group through the lifecyle of honey bees and their marvelous product. He also brought in a DVD from NOVA on the life of bees called "Tales from the Hive" and shared it, after his talk.

The highlight of the evening was samples of his bee's work...golden honey! Steve also had a small gift jar of the sweet nectar for each attendee, from his bee-utiful bees, and an extra special honey gift box for the president (me). I could fill this blog with all sorts of facts and figures regarding the keeping of bees, but lets face it...you know how to "Google" too and why not? I will leave you this one nugget of gleaned information to remember; bees need to visit about 2 million flowers to make just 1 pound of honey! AMAZING!!

Mr. Thunander raises a toast to the bee!