Feeding of Gulls on Pismo Clams
Feeding of Gulls on Pismo Clams
Low tide at Sunset Beach, Santa Cruz County, California, on February 16, 1939, brought men of several races and gulls of several species together with the common purpose of preying on the Pismo clam. Man took the “legal” clams, over five inches in length, while the gulls took the smaller, rejected ones.
The gulls would follow right after the men digging clams, and pick up the smaller ones discarded as below the legal limit. Clams near five inches were apparently too large for the gulls to carry, but those four inches or smaller were seized in the bill and carried away. The birds would then mount thirty to fifty feet in the air over the hard, water-packed sand and let the clam drop. Often two or three tries were necessary, but finally the two halves would fall apart or the shell would break. Then amid much fighting and thieving the feast would begin, with Sanderlings waiting nearby to pick up any scraps that might fall to them. Attempts by the writer to open clams by methods similar to the gulls’ resulted in failure, leading to the belief that there is yet something to be found out about the gulls’ method of opening the shellfish.
The above observation has been checked since, at times when the tide was low and clams were dug, and the same procedure was followed by the various species of gulls.
Albert C. Hawbecker
Watsonville, California, March 21, 1939
