Confrontational

Gulls

and Butterflies
Great Black-backed Gull. Pretty, but don’t mess with it. This photo copied under terms of GNU Free Documentation License.

Gulls

Shown above is the Great Black-backed Gull, Larus marinus, a very large gull that
breeds on the European and North American coasts and islands of the North Atlantic.
This is the largest of the gulls, much bigger than a Herring Gull and often described as
the King of Gulls. It is up to 30 inches long with a wingspan as great as 6 feet, many
adult males weighing more than three pounds. Unlike most Larus gulls, Great
Black-backs will hunt and kill any prey smaller than themselves. They can swallow
puffins or small wild ducks whole. When protecting a nest, they are formidable
 A Great Black-backed Gull attacking an American Coot, probably going after food in the coot’s beak, though Great Black-backs
are also known to kill and eat coots. Photo copied under terms of GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.

adversaries. Anyone approaching nesting

black-backs is messing with the business
end of the bull. Herring gulls are second to
them only in terms of size, and defend their
nests with much the same ferocity.

In the spring of 1986 I spent a few days at

the Shoals Marine Laboratory, a Cornell
University teaching facility on Appledore
Island in the Isles of Shoals, some twelve
miles off the New Hampshire coast. At this
time of year, gulls nest here in their
thousands, often directly on the footpaths.
They even nest all over Star Island, where a
large church-affiliated hotel hosts many
guests, and the gulls defend their nests so
ferociously that they frighten guests. I know
from personal experience that a hike
around Appledore Island at nesting time can
test the mettle of man or boy.
Anyone hoping to walk about on any
island where gulls are nesting is well
advised to wear hooded foul-weather
 gear and carry a long stick.
This you wave in a circle
overhead to discourage gulls
from dive-bombing you with
feces, regurgitating half-
digested fish on you, or even
attacking and biting you.
Anyone venturing onto high
places during nesting season
risks a nasty fall. I was dumb
enough to find myself near the
edge of a high cliff when I
came under attack by two
black-backs that pecked me
hard enough to draw blood,
Photo via pricklysquirrel

while beating me black and blue with their big wings.

My primary concern was losing my balance and falling
off the cliff, but I did manage to strike one of them
with my stick, so they backed off and resorted to
strafing passes. And believe me, those gulls had
mastered the art of projectile-vomiting. They scored
some very smelly hits, which proceeded to trickle
down inside my clothing.
Herring gulls are intimidating enough, but to be
attacked by two or more great black-backs is a
daunting experience. As previously noted, they’re very
large birds, with wing-spans of five to six feet and Photo via The First Post
large, powerful beaks. Just the noise of their
screaming cries is unnerving.
Some gull attacks in recent years have been severe. A child had his lip cut open
as a sausage roll was ripped from his mouth by a diving gull. A woman was rushed to
hospital with deep beak wounds to her head. A pet dog was pecked to death. An
80-year-old man suffered a fatal heart attack after being mobbed by gulls.

Butterflies

Confrontational creatures come in all sizes. One day as I stood on the porch of the
Shoals Marine Laboratory’s main community building, watching swallows bring food
to their nestlings under the porch, I noticed that each passing swallow was confronted
by a small white butterfly, which would fly up and dart about each bird, then return to
its perch atop a high bush. I asked the resident ornithologist whether this was
territorial behavior by the butterfly, and he said, "Oh yes, butterflies can be very
territorial, and quite aggressive."
There’s much disagreement on this point, among professionals as well as
learned lay people. The logic goes something like this. How can a butterfly be
aggressively territorial when it has no teeth or claws to enforce its aggression? But
aren’t there many toothless, clawless species that are territorial? Jawless fish such as
lampreys and hagfish (45 species). Male snakes wrestle till one is too tired to
continue. Venomous snakes elect not to use venom, but wrestle instead. Many frog
and toad males attract females through song, and compete with other males but
without violence. Given time, I’m sure I could come up with many pages of examples.
Most of the debate centers on whether butterflies can be aggressive toward
each other. But I’m even more intrigued by small white or sulphur butterflies flying up
in the faces of birds many times their size.
On the wooded edge of a hayfield in Essex, I saw a small white butterfly actually
chase a Savannah sparrow, moving quickly enough to dart about the bird once or
twice as it was flying away. I find it remarkable that a butterfly small enough to be
eaten by a bird has the gumption to fly feisty circles around it. Maybe this butterfly,
and the ones observed at Shoals Marine Lab, are simply trying to drink the tears of
these birds, but it takes gumption nonetheless.

On 12 August 2003 I drove to White Beach in Manchester-by-the-Sea and parked at the

western end. In so doing, I unknowingly dislodged a previous parker, a black butterfly
which flew challenging circles around the front of my car, even striking the windshield.
When I got out of the car, it flew challenging circles around me, sometimes touching
my face and hair. In time it settled back onto the ground, where it resumed its
interrupted mission, apparently to lick up needed minerals. It tolerated me to come
quite close. I find that small animals prefer me as low to the ground as possible, so I
hunkered down and got a good long look at it. It approached within inches of my
outstretched hand, and at one point even walked between my feet. Quite the beauty
it was, black overall with two parallel rows of blue-green spots near the trailing edges
of its wings, and a row of yellow spots along the trailing edges. Estimated wingspan,
from memory, 3 inches. The wingtips have an arrangement of blue, green, yellow and
red spots. I had never before seen this species. Every few seconds it slowly flapped
its wings.
This would have made an ideal subject for my digital camera, but that was in
the car, and I was afraid the butterfly would leave if I went to get the camera. My 35-
mm Nikon was around my neck, unfortunately with a telephoto lens, but I backed off
and took a few shots. The butterfly was in the shade. I hoped to photograph it on a
sunny patch of ground, but every time it flew, it landed on a shady patch.
One shot turned out fairly well, and I show it below. If my description of colors
doesn’t match the photograph, blame my tritanopia.
After I had taken the last shot on the roll, the butterfly flew onto a sunny patch.
Unidentified species encountered at White Beach, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.

Wouldn’t you know. I went to get my digital camera, and sure enough, the butterfly
disappeared.

I later examined hundreds of butterfly photographs on the Web, and two books
of butterfly photographs at a library, but found nothing even close. If you can identify
this species, please e-mail me at gerardbythesea@hotmail.com. I’ll give you credit.

http://oddsbodkins.posterous.com/