Playful Break on the Beach

     Got back from teaching with my coworker, and just in time for lunch. With temperatures reading in the low 70's an outdoor beach lunch was in order. There was some wind, and some sand in my lunch, but a little sand in the GI tract never hurt no one. It felt awesome to go barefoot on the sand and even at one point, needing to shed the zip-up.
     The laughing gulls are back, they make themselves known with their laughing call, that gives them their name. A couple of winter stragglers still linger, but fewer and fewer are present. I think it's safe to say that winter and snow is finally done, bring on the warmth!

A common loon swims along the shore, in full breeding season plumage, looking sleek and gorgeous. This is a bird that will soon head North to reproduce and give that eerie loon call.

A ring billed gull in the surf.

Gulls frozen in flight take on a whole different feel from what we usually associate them with. I am pretty sure for most people, gulls are just a step up from pigeons (which I also love and adore), but freeze them in flight and they can seem angelic, playful, and very beautiful.

A gull catches some wind to give him some lift. The laughing gulls look so slick with that black head on a sleek white body.

An immature ring billed gull, looking more like a phoenix caught in such a pose. 

A couple of folks were tossing tidbits into the air and the laughing gulls hovered and caught them on the wing, making for some fun captures. They were also really good at catching!

Who's gonna get it?! One of the guys watching on the boardwalk of course gave a few "mine, mine, mine's." Disney nailed it on that anthropomorphism of gulls. 

I hope you can see gulls in a slightly different light, they are lovely things with interesting behaviors and so many differences between each bird, depending on species, age, and the time of year. Get out and enjoy some gulls and the amazing weather!