Dovekie – It’s What’s for Dinner

by - February 16, 2012 - Bird Finding Tips, Bird Sightings, Birding, birds in flight, General Info, Photography, Trip Reports - Tagged: , , , , , - 2 comments

Around 9:45am on the day of the February 4th Cape May pelagic, I was standing on the very front of the boat, scanning for birds. I looked over to our left and a few hundred yards out I saw some commotion on water. I could see a Great Black-backed Gull diving at the water and occasionally landing on the water and messing with something. At about the same time, another birder on board spotted a Northern Fulmar in the same direction, so the captain moved the boat in closer. As we approached the Great Black-backed Gull, we could see it had something in its mouth. Finally, we were close enough to realize that we had just witnessed the gull kill a Dovekie! Throughout the day we witnessed this one other time, when a group of Herring Gulls managed to kill and tear apart a Dovekie. We were able to scare the gulls off their meal however, and bring the dead Dovekie on board, to examine it more closely. I have seen Great Black-backed Gulls kill and eat other small birds (and even bigger birds like Common Merganser) but I was not expecting to see one kill a Dovekie – I guess out on the ocean during winter, you take what you can get.

Great Black-backed Gull with a Dovekie it managed to kill (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)

A dead Dovekie floating on the surface (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)

Herring Gull attempting to take a dead Dovekie for itself (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)

Herring Gull attempting to take a dead Dovekie for itself (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)

Paul Guris with a dead Dovekie (Photo by Ian Gardner)

A close-up of the dead Dovekie (Photo by Ian Gardner)

A Northern Fulmar enjoying a bit of dead Dovekie (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)

Great Black-backed Gull passing the boat (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)

Herring Gull passing the boat (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)

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Alex Lamoreaux

Alex is currently working for the Center for Conservation Biology, studying migrant Whimbrel and other coastal birds of Virginia's Eastern Shore. Alex is also studying Wildlife Biology at the Pennsylvania State University. An avid birder since 8 years old, Alex has since been able to travel not only across most of the United States, but also to Central America and Southern Africa in search birds. Raptors, shorebirds, and warblers are among his favorite groups of birds to observe and photograph.

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