Seagulls

Bold, funny, curious seagulls may not always be the nicest of birds, but I still like them. They seem so smart and their “beach bag thievery” antics always crack me up. And even though they live inland as well, I’ve always associated their cries with the coast. It sounds like summer and vacation to me.

I’m lucky enough to spend a lot of time on the beach when I have it mostly to myself (i.e. in winter), and love to study the birds and their behavior when they get to go about their business undisturbed (well, I’m there, but I don’t chase them!)

Last winter, I decided to focus on seagulls (pun totally intended). They were so funny: at first, when I walked right by them, they just ignored me, but as soon as I put the camera in front of my face and started to focus on them, even from quite a distance, they gave me a look and started walking off haughtily. 🙂 But they got used to me pretty quickly, and I ended up being able to sit almost next to them and shoot (although as you can see, they were still keeping an eye on me). This is the first series of prints from this project:

PS. I know there is no such thing as a “seagull”, but I’ve always thought of them as that, and will continue to do so. The birds in these prints are technically Ring-billed Gulls though.