THE GULLS OF APPLEDORE ISLAND

Thank you, Laura Shovan, for hosting Poetry Friday today Here.

First, what an amazing and stunning star-studded inauguration! It brought me so much joy to see the performing arts and music back on the national stage.

Here’s a link to a highlight of the day, the inaugural poem, by lovely and brilliant Amanda Gorman.

Acceptance of others was one theme of the day, so it reminded me of. . . . the gulls on Appledore Island. Bear with me.

A host in the past to the likes of Blackbeard and Captain John Smith, Appledore Island is a half mile wide, made of rock and shrubs. It is the largest in an archipelago seven miles off the coast of Maine known as the Isles of Shoals.

Research student Mary Caswell Stoddard from Yale arrived on Appledore Island in 2007 and found many hundreds of Herring Gulls, like this one, nesting:

Great Black-backed Gulls liked the one below, lived among them, too. They delighted in dive bombing researchers with a Kek Kek and bites to their legs and heads. Helmets are required gear.

But one day a newcomer was observed in a nest on a ledge on the island. It had yellow feet! It didn’t belong in Herring Gull territory. The new bird was a Lesser Black-backed Gull.

This yellow footed gull was soon observed “cavorting” on a cliff with another species, a Herring gull. Mary Stoddard, the researcher, noted that the newcomer was gradually accepted by the ornery Herring gulls nesting all around just as she herself, sitting in a makeshift blind, was accepted with time. The newcomer gull lived peacefully with the Appledore gull population.

Stoddard writes :

“. . . the initial excitement and the subsequent dullness eventually gave way to a satisfying equilibrium: At some point, I realized that I knew gull-speak. I understood the patterns and peculiarities of the Lesser Black-backed Gull and his mate–what times of day they preferred to incubate, which neighbors they particularly disliked, how they communicated with one another using mew calls and head tosses.”

Stoddard wrote about the gulls in Birdwatching Magazine. From 2008 to 2011, this same male Lesser Black-backed Gull (sex determined by DNA testing) returned to the exact same spot on Appledore to breed with his Herring Gull mate. They had chicks that survived, something that interested researchers, as the gull parents were of different species.

Nature is an endless well of stories about living things, like the Lesser Black-backed Gull, finding a way to live and thrive among others who are different.

This haiku might describe what the researcher saw through her binoculars. 

Different kind of gull
stranger with bright yellow feet
preens on rocky ledge.

© Janice Scully 2021

If you’d like to hear the sounds gulls make click here.

I hope everyone is well and may we all get vaccinated soon.

18 thoughts on “THE GULLS OF APPLEDORE ISLAND”

  1. Love that gull with yellow feet. Thanks for the info about Mary Stoddard and your lovely haiku. 🙂 Yes, it was SO good to hear poetry and music at the inauguration again. A much needed embrace of humanity.

  2. Why yes, I did want to hear the sound of gulls. How did you know? The idea of a lesser-back gull cavorting with the others. Well, it’s funny that it was a thing to even notice. But, it IS a wow. Oh, how we will all get our family members out of their odd little mental bunkers and back into a democratic society I don’t know. But, I think play time…cavorting…might be a nice idea. Thanks for this post. It helps.

  3. “Finding ways to live and thrive among others who are different.”
    So beautifully said, dear Janice.

    And I love being reminded of the 22-year-old poet who Rightly. Took. My. Breath.Away.
    It will be a joy to follow her career from here.

    Appreciations for all the links today & Take Joy, Take Care.

    Jan/Bookseedstudio

  4. Fascinating connections, Janice. Weren’t we all swept away by Amanda and her words, and can’t we all appreciate that “Nature is an endless well of stories about living things, like the Lesser Black-backed Gull, finding a way to live and thrive among others who are different.” Therein lies the poetic story of us all – let it be one of mutual respect and appreciation. Many thanks 🙂

  5. If only everyone would watch and learn as Mary Stoddard observed and Amanda Gorman wrote and shared! I love your sharing, Janice, and your haiku brings a memory of a nursery rhyme question: “Why can’t we all be like that wise old bird?”

  6. What a heartwarming connection you made! At my local pond, there are some hooded merganser ducks who hang out with the Canada geese as they migrate through the area every winter. It is sweet to see them together — the mergansers are so much smaller. Vulnerable, but comfortable and safe. Welcome, strangers!

  7. I love all the connections in this post, Janice. I also love that the acceptance of this yellow-footed friend inspired your haiku. I feel like there’s a NF picture book (prose or verse) on this subject in your future… 🙂

  8. Janice, your research back matter is fascinating, especially since it focuses on the acceptance of others. With democracy and unity as an important theme for Inauguration Day, it is helpful to know that acceptance of others can be achieved. While I could not access your link, I did find the Herring gull call online. It reminds me of summer and the amazing call of the beach gulls. Now when I go to the beach, I will watch how the gulls congregate.

  9. Janice, what a wonderful story you shared here. I was rooting for the new gull! Your haiku capped it off perfectly.

    I hope to see you in the February Poetry Project. Make sure to accept my friend request so that I’m able to invite you to the group.

  13. A great connection, Janice. Thank you! I loved learning about the gulls and its a story with an important message.

  15. I love your connection between the inauguration and the seagulls. The inauguration and your story both give me hope for the future–and it feels like such a relief!
    Acceptance and learning to live together feels so important right now. Nature does have many lessons to teach us! Thanks!!

  17. Your connection with gulls reminds me also of Dr. Seuss’s The Sneeches—the ones with stars on thars, the ones with yellow feet—heck, we are all neighbors on this planet, aren’t we? Humans have much to learn from the natural world.

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