Gulls, Terns, And Skimmers

The sharp, screaming call of gulls is easy to recognize. Just about everyone thinks of the sea when they hear this sound. Yet most of the gull species are more shorebirds or even land birds than true seabirds. The kittiwake is actually the only gull that we can rightly call a 'seabird'. Gulls brood in large, busy and noisy colonies. They lay two or three spotted eggs in a nest made from vegetation. The chicks hatch with a dark spotted downy plummage and can walk right away. Until they are mature, gulls remain spotted to some degree.