Crossposted to The Curse of the Northern Hawk Owl
See the shell in this gull’s mouth?
See below for what it does with it.
This isn’t from Vermont, but I thought y’all might still find it interesting.
What’s going on here is that gulls (and other birds that feed on shellfish) will sometimes lift their intended prey high into the air and drop it onto the rocks to break the shell. They, of course, have to follow it down so no other bird grabs it if it cracks. I’d heard of this before, but never actually seen it, so to be able to photograph the sequence is kind of cool.
And drove a Corvette.
Sea gulls used to drop sea urchins in the parking lot at his work. The fiberglass was not amused.
I used to live near the Maine coast (well, easy driving distance) and spent innumerable hours trying to get just this sort of photo story. Alas, never happened.
Congratulations to you for getting a chance to photograph this.