Smashing seagulls...

This weekend I'm escaping the concrete jungle and am back in Sussex for my dad's 60th birthday. As per usual, Saturday morning meant a family outing to the local running club for a tempo session...

So there I was, at 9am this morning, at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve panting away. I had a great run, despite being currently plague by some kind of chest bug. 

I was joined on the reserve by a huge range of wildlife, it's an amazing place for bird and bug watching and I really enjoy going down there. At around mile 3 I ran across a patch of concrete littered with crushed shells. Herring gulls (amongst a few other species, mainly gulls) use the concrete track to smash open mollusc shells to expose the flesh inside. I've seen them do this before and have read a few studies on it previously, it's similar to the extractive foraging techniques used by primates. 

Whilst running, I was watching the gulls and could see some birds dropping shells from greater heights than others. It is thought this is due to a learned behaviour the gulls develop; they come to know that heavier shells need a bit more force and some species of mollusc are harder to break open, so they fly higher before dropping them.  I noticed this morning that some birds had a higher success rate than others. I was dwelling on this whilst puffing along during the session, and thought it may be correlated with the age of the bird. Older birds have longer to work out which methods are more beneficial, whereas the juvenile birds still haven't got the knack of it. I got home and had a little snoop around online. I was right, being a learned behaviour, it takes the birds a few go's before they figure out how to get the best reward whilst expending the least amount of energy; a theory dubbed 'juvenile naivety'. Not only this, but birds learn whether it's more beneficial to drop a shell from a greater height once or multiple drops from closer to the ground. This is due to 'piracy'; when dropping shells from higher up, it takes the gulls longer to retrieve their breakfast, increasing the chances of it being pinched!

I can tell you, no one was pinching my breakfast this morning! I'm well and truly pooped!

Iden Moat

Forstals Farm

I did still have time for a lovely, sunny walk with the pooches across the farms and fields. It's definitely nice to be out in the country air for a while...

   

 I should probably take this opportunity to introduce my clan of animals. We have Brian the cat, she (yes, she) is grumpy 90% of the time and is the boss of the household. Then we have Fred, or Fredstick, a rescue bull breed lurcher. She's an anxious soul who suffers with severe separation anxiety, but she's full of love and character. And the newest addition, Mickey, or Mickey Meatball, was recently rescued by us from my rehoming centre. He's the happiest dog alive and is doing a grand job of keeping Fred company and chilling her out. They're a mismatched bunch, but they're my mismatched bunch and I love them. Only when they're not taking up the whole bed though...