I spent considerable time on 2/19 observing and photographing gulls at low tide on March Point.  The gulls were busy procuring and eating clams, and they made it look easy.  They stroll along the beach looking for clams.  In most cases they seem to choose a “free-range’ clam, but I have occasionally seen them pull one off of a rock.  They then take off with the clam and fly up into a stall, always ensuring that they are over a rocky area.  They then drop the clam which cracks when it hits the rocks below.  They then drop down and dine.

There is an alternate means of securing a clam, however.  You stand around on the beach waiting until one of your friends drops a clam too close to you, then you beat the clam’s original owner to the clam!

Every once in awhile it appears that a gull will want to show off to its friends, and instead of taking action to drop the clam immediately it takes the time and effort to sail over its friends with the clam in its mouth.

This behavior is evident on March Point, along the Tommy Thompson Trail and along the beach in Coupeville.  And in Coupeville the crows have apparently learned and adopted the behavior from the gulls!