BLACK-BACKED GULL IS COMMON AT WHAKATANE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 72, 5 December 1949, Page 5

BLACK-BACKED GULL IS COMMON AT WHAKATANE

Because of the continually changing coast line from Cape Runaway to the Coromandel Peninsular residents who live on the coast in the Bay of Plenty have ample opportunity of studying the habits of the large number of different seabirds that inhabit the small bays and cliffs. That part of the rocky coast between Ohope and Whakatane is possibly one of the richest in sea bird life and of them all the blackbacked gull is probably the most common.

It is easily recognisable and is considered the best. known of sea birds. One of the greatest of scavengers, it plays a big part in keeping the beaches and all the unaccessible parts of the coast free of decaying fish and anima| matter. Unlike many sea birds the blackbacked gull is not a diver and the most it does in this respect is to thrust head and neck into the water in an endeavour to secure submerged or sinking food.

Along rocky foreshores it will spend hours carrying aloft shellfish and dropping them from a considerable height. Then it will repeatedly drop a shell on a rock only a few feet square until the shell is broken.

Another method of obtaining food does not seem to have attracted the attention it really deserves. The gull may often be seen at low water on the mud flats of the Whakatane River near the Heads, apparently standing quite (still on the edge of the water. After a few seconds they will turn round and pick briskly at the water, facing the shore. At the same time the feet and legs are moving rapidly, trampling up food from the silt.