Clean Up Crew

The thing I love since becoming a birder is all the interesting things I learn about the various species. I've been seeing seagulls all over for years and viewed them as pests. Today, I see them much differently. Gulls are intelligent and social birds that are skilled flyers and excellent scavengers. They are known for their ability to drink saltwater using special glands and for their complex behaviors like using tools, mimicking rain to hunt worms, and remembering human faces. There are around 50 species of gulls found around the world in a variety of coastal, inland, and urban environments. Seagulls offer substantial environmental advantages, mainly by serving as natural scavengers in coastal and urban ecosystems, functioning as nature's "clean-up crew." Their consumption and excretion of organic material decompose complex substances into simpler compounds, recycling essential nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus back into the soil and water, fostering plant and microbial growth. Getting closer to nature and observing wildlife has changed how I view them and given me a deeper appreciation for how interlinked everything is to the environment and each other.