6/16/2010

A Tragic End for Our Laughing Gulls?

Laughing Gulls are named after the sound they make, which sounds like laughing. But they often look like they're laughing, too! 
Sometimes, they look comical enough to make us laugh!  This is how Laughing Gulls look with the wind in their hair.
Laughing gulls are our smallest gulls, and are gorgeous and graceful in flight.

Two ships passing in the night (actually, two birds passing in the day!)

The one looking up may be having a drink of water. Laughing Gulls have a salt gland that allows them to drink sea water. They prefer fresh water, but when you're thirsty; you're thirsty!

This is a Laughing Gull pulled from the Louisiana coast earlier this month.  The pictures taken by AP photographer Charlie Riedel have become tragically famous, but we can't escape the horrible effects of the gulf oil spill just because we are far removed from the spill itself.

Many of the Laughing Gulls that breed here in the Northeast spend their winters in the Gulf of Mexico.  Think about all those happy birds at the beginning of this post being trapped and terrified and struggling to breathe in the oil slicked waters of their winter home.  I can hardly breathe myself just thinking about it. 

1 comment:

  1. Great photos of the laughing gulls, Susan, especially the one where two are facing into the wind. The pictures of the oil-soaked birds are heartbreaking. ABA is looking for donations to help with the clean-up of these birds. (https://www.aba.org/donate/gulf.php0

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