ICONS OF THE SUMMER SEASHORE

     I think of laughing gulls and brown pelicans as beautiful and inspiring icons of the Atlantic seacoast of the United States in summer.  The gulls summer from southern New England south and west to Mexico, while the pelicans summer from New Jersey to Mexico.  Both these wonderful species of birds are common, and commonly seen, summering along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.  I've been happy to see them in person along the coasts, and I'm just as glad to experience them on our home computer screen via live cameras on barrier islands and backwater salt marshes between those islands and the mainland.

     Laughing gulls and brown pelicans are attractive, adaptable and graceful in flight along the seacoast.  Both species rest obviously in the open on docks, pilings, piers, roof tops, jetties, beaches and backwater channels, where they are easily seen by everyone.  In summer, adult laughing gulls are light-gray on top, white below and have black heads.  Their young of the year, which are first seen about mid-July, are mostly brown, which camouflages them.  Adults of this kind of pelican are mostly gray-brown with yellow on the head and neck.  Young pelicans are brown.

     Laughing gulls are almost everywhere along American seacoasts in summer.  Their boisterous, drawn-out calls, that do sound like people laughing, are heard almost as much as those attractive gulls are seen.  

     Laughing gulls raise young, in abundance, in colonies, among  grasses in salt marshes, behind the barrier islands that shield those marshes from the ocean.  And laughing gulls eat almost anything edible, including washed-up, dead fish, invertebrates, and popcorn, peanuts, bread and other human-made tidbits thrown to them on beaches and boardwalks by vacationers seeking entertainment.  It is interesting to watch clouds of graceful laughing gulls all flapping their wings into the wind just enough to hold stationary positions in the air while people throw snack foods into the air for the gulls to catch.  And they do, quite handily, catch those tidbits, without colliding with their relatives, in the air because of their quick responses and mastery of the wind.  The black-headed, handsome laughing gulls are awesome in the air, which is their main charm.   

     The stately brown pelicans often fly majestically in long, single file lines low over the breakers of the ocean, where they are visible from the beaches.  Those lines of pelicans, each bird having its head drawn back over its neck, undulate up and down as the birds flap together, then glide beautifully in unison, with wings outstretched, creating an inspiring spectacle of themselves in the air, which is their main charm.  Brown pelicans' wing beats are slow, deep and powerful, which gives them speed and efficiency in flight.    

     Brown pelicans are exciting to watch diving for fish in the ocean, just beyond the breakers, and large backwaters off the ocean.  Each pelican climbs to about sixty feet in the air and watches for fish.  When prey is spotted, the pelican suddenly dives beak-first at a slant, folding its wings back just before it hits the water and scoops up fish and water in the pouch of its over-sized bill.  Immediately, the pelican floats to the surface, dispels the water from its beak and swallows the fish.  Then it runs over the water to get airborne, climbs into the air and watches for more victims.          

     Brown pelicans rear offspring in colonies on isolated, sandy or gravelly islands, and on human-made piles of debris near big waters.  Most females lay three eggs each and the parents regurgitate fish into their babies' beaks.   

     The lovely and stately laughing gulls and brown pelicans are interesting and inspiring to experience and acknowledge along the summer seacoast.  Those two kinds of birds, those icons of the shore, help make living or vacationing along Atlantic Ocean shorelines all the more enjoyable.