Incoming Gulls

     I arrived at Struble Lake, which is near Honeybrook, Chester County, Pennsylvania, around 3:30 PM on January 13 of this year to see if ring-billed gulls were still spending winter nights on that human-made impoundment.  At first, I saw no gulls, but within 20 minutes I saw a great blue heron powering majestically and low across the lake, a belted kingfisher flying along that impoundment's shoreline and an adult bald eagle perched elegantly in a tree on shore.  All those wintering birds are catchers of fish that are naturally drawn to that large lake for what they hope is an unending food supply.
     Finally, just about 4:00 PM, many ring-billed gulls suddenly started returning to Struble Lake to spend the night.  Streams of them from different directions poured high across the sky toward the lake, formed a circling, buoyant flock over the impoundment, then spiraled quickly and gracefully down to the middle of the lake.  As more and more ring-bills streamed across the sky to Struble Lake and swirled down to it, I saw a growing "carpet" of gulls on the quiet, sky-reflecting water.
     As I watched the ring-bills on the lake, through screens of bare crack willow trees, phragmites plumes, rose hips and dead goldenrod stalks, more and more of their kind kept coming across the sky, flock after inspiring flock, and sweeping down to the water, making that raft of densely-packed gulls grow larger and larger.          
     And still more sheets of ring-bills came from every direction, formed spinning, entertaining flocks high in the sky, and swooped to the lake, making the island of gulls on the water ever more spread out.     
     And, to my excitement, still more gulls flew and glided to the mirror-like impoundment, the birds now silhouetted beautifully against the sky as they spiraled to the water.  Lesser numbers of ring-bills continued to arrive at the lake as I left to go home at 5:00 PM. 
     Ring-billed gulls are a joy to watch in flight.  And in winter, these highly adaptable birds, that originally adapted to shoreline beaches and mud flats, add life to open, human-made habitats in the Middle Atlantic States, including large impoundments and parking lots, cultivated fields, golf courses and land-fills, where they get much of their daily food.  Ring-bills adapted well to human habitats and activities, to their benefit and ours.