Fishing Pier Birds

     I see four kinds of adaptable seacoast birds, including boat-tailed grackles, laughing gulls, rock pigeons and brown pelicans, on the Kure Beach, North Carolina fishing pier, year around in 2017 and 2018, via our home computer.  Though that pier almost always has people on it, even in winter, those bird species are almost always on it, too, suggesting to me the birds are there to rest and get food.  Some people clean the fish they catch there, and, of course, there are crumbs from peoples' lunches and snacks.  People on the pier don't bother the birds, much to the birds' benefits.  The birds don't intimidate the people, either.  It's a case of live and let live on both sides.  And these are all beautiful kinds of birds, in their feathering and their adapting themselves to their environments for survival.
     Each bird species has a different reason to be on that pier.  Boat-tailed grackles, for example, are there mostly to get tidbits of fish and lunches.  Each grackle walks among the people in search of whatever edibles happen to be on the pier.  Males are almost the size of fish crows, but slimmer, with black feathering that is iridescently purple, and long, keeled tails, like a boat.  Females are light-brown and smaller than their mates.  Both genders have long legs and tails.  Boat-tails are scavengers, but they also consume invertebrates and seeds on lawns and beaches.
     Boat-tailed grackles nest in small, noisy colonies in shoreline trees along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.  Many of them commute to fishing piers in hopes of  scavenging "easy" food, but spend nights in those trees.
     Laughing gulls are THEE birds of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the eastern United States.  They are the abundant, noisy gulls that are gray on top, white below and have black heads in spring and early summer.  They nest colonially in salt marshes and catch small fish and invertebrates, and scavenge whatever edibles they can wherever they can, including on salt marshes, beaches, boardwalks and piers.  They, and their boisterous, laugh-like cries, seem to be everywhere along the seacoast.  Many of them land on the pier railings to rest from foraging for food, but they take their share of fish and lunch scraps while on those piers.             
     Late in summer and through autumn and winter, adult laughing gulls are gray and white as usual, but without black feathering on their heads.  They mostly have white head feathers during that time.
     And toward late summer, young laughing gulls of the year join their parents on salt marshes, beaches, boardwalks and piers to get food the same as the adults do.  Young gulls are mostly brown on top and white below, with white tails, each one with a dark, terminal band.
     Rock pigeons roost year around and raise young during warmer months under piers, including the Kure Beach pier, as they do on buildings and rocky quarry walls, in barns, and under boardwalks and bridges.  Pigeons traditionally roost and nest on rocky cliffs along the Mediterranean Sea.  But some of them were domesticated for meat and eggs, and some of their descendants were brought to the United States with European colonists.  Some American pigeons escaped captivity and have wild descendants in this country to this day, including along the seacoast, a habitat they are adapted to.  
     Pigeons living under piers ingest crumbs from bread, crackers and similar foods on those piers.  But they also fly to beaches, boardwalks and streets along the coastline to get similar foods.  And some pigeons fly to fields to ingest weed, grass and grain seeds, but return to the piers to roost.
     Brown pelicans, which are common along the Atlantic Coast of North Carolina, and farther south, rest on the railings of piers, including at Kure Beach, between fishing forays.  Of all the coastal birds in the eastern United States, the omnipresent laughing gulls, and handsome brown pelicans, are two of the most interesting species to watch.  Laughing gulls are everywhere along the coast, wheeling and soaring effortlessly into the wind, calling loudly and catching food that is thrown to them in mid-air.  But the large, majestic pelicans fly elegantly in long lines, alternately soaring lightly as one bird, then pumping their wings strongly, again all birds in a line at once, as they power along the ocean surf and beaches.         
     Small groups of brown pelicans dive spectacularly into the water, from about 60 feet high, to catch fish in their over-sized bills.  Each bird folds back its wings just before entering the water with a splash.  The beaks take in fish and water, but strain out the water, leaving the fish to be swallowed.  
     Brown pelicans are becoming more common and pushing farther north along the Atlantic Coast of North America.  There seems to be more of these magnificent birds in North Carolina these days; happily for them and us.    
     Boat-tailed grackles, laughing gulls, rock pigeons and brown pelicans are adaptable species that are maintaining their numbers.  These interesting species learned to avail themselves of human-made constructions and activities to their benefit and ours.  Their populations are flourishing and we can enjoy their presence and activities, close at hand, the year around.