Gulls are extremely intelligent birds, and I was reminded of that fact, once again, mind you, this very morning when I noticed a farmer cutting his hay field and something trailing the chopper caught my eye.
It was a flock of gulls, a group of birds so intently pursuing the hay chopper that even a novice birder could tell it wasn’t a casual event, but these sea-fairing birds definitely had a purpose on their mind as they systematically followed the big red machine.
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In fact, even before the first full line of hay was cut, a couple of dozen gulls literally appeared out of nowhere and started hovering around the chopper like a bell had rung somewhere and was alerting them of the activity in the nearby hayfield.
Honestly, I didn’t quite understand what was going on until I grabbed my camera and fired off a few images to document this strange but very strong phenomenon between bird and machine.
Every so often, a gull would dive down and land behind the chopper, and that led me to believe they were feeding in the cut hay field, possibly on bugs and other small insects I simply presumed.
But it wasn’t until I looked at my first few images while I waited for the hay chopper to make another pass that I noticed the gulls weren’t feeding on insects, not in the least, but on something much bigger, rodents.
The gulls were feeding exclusively on rodents, most likely voles from what I could tell, that suddenly found themselves exposed by the hay chopper clearing and cutting their heavy canopy away.
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Somehow, the gulls knew what this particular machine did, and when they saw it moving, dozens of them from around the local area came and followed the hay chopper to feed on the unsuspecting and now vulnerable rodents.
In about 5 minutes, I counted 10 rodents being caught and eaten by the gulls, sometimes setting off a chase when a hungry gull decided stealing a rodent from its counterpart was far easier than waiting for the next one to surface behind the chopper.
And as soon as the field was fully cut and the machine had left, so did the gulls; they were only interested in the immediate uncovering of hay right behind the chopper.
Like a lot of people, including a few other birdwatchers I’d suppose, I never gave gulls a fair opportunity to impress me or get much time in front of my camera lens.
Sadly, I let the age-old stigma of gulls feeding in garbage dumps and stealing fries at the family picnic take away much of my interest in these birds, but the truth is that mindset has got to change.
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Yes, some gulls are forced to work out their living any way they can in some less than natural situations, but if you sit and watch them for a few minutes like I did today, I am certain you will find they are more than just avian bandits trying to steal an easy meal any way they can; they are incredibly smart creatures.
That notion was reiterated to me today from a random, impromptu moment of birdwatching, where I simply watched and learned just how intelligent gulls really are by knowing rodents would be exposed when a hay chopper was working a field.
Simply amazing, wouldn’t you agree?
Learning about birds is amazing and full of surprises like this, and is what keeps me coming back year after year since I was a small boy.
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