Last year we brought you Osprey. This year, we bring you Gulls. We saw an amazing number of Gulls, particularly at Damariscotta Mills Fish Ladder (which, despite the name, is not actually in Damariscotta). The towns of Nobleboro and Newcastle (the ladder is actually between them) are restoring the fish ladder, and doing a fabulous job of it.
When we first arrived, the ladder area was very quiet. As we walked around, we saw many gulls on the top of a couple of houses.
The gulls all decided to take off a few minutes later. It was slightly dangerous standing there when they first got into the air ... it felt like we were on a target range. Luckily, we were not hit. The birds were moving over to the ladder entrance; a school of Alewife fish had come in. We latter learned that the fish were mostly waiting in the harbor, getting ready to come in. Sometimes they are forced in early because a seal chases them, looking for its own dinner. (It is a difficult life, being an Alewife.)
In this next picture you can see some of the gulls, as well as the harvesting section of the fishladder. It really doesn't start to convey the number of gulls that were there, nor the cacophony of cries that they created. The railing going across the river is actually the top of a fence; the fence is dropped a few days before the Alewife harvest. On the right of the picture you can see two large metal shoots. On harvest day (which was the Monday after we left) those are lowered, then raised with the Alewife fish in them. After the harvest, the gates will be opened again. To the right, outside of the picture, is an entrance to the actual ladder. The ladder is a series of levels, rising 42 feet, that the fish can navigate to the pond upstream. Unfortunately, we don't have any good pictures of the ladder itself.
The gulls had detected that some fish had come in, and went to have lunch.
Competition is tough. When a gull does catch a fish, it has to move fast or another gull might steal it away. Put your cursor over the picture to see the subsequent tussle; it might take a moment to load the 1st time:
If you think that looked difficult, another time a gull was willing to fly upside-down to attempt the snatch.
In this next picture, the gull with the fish is trying to swallow quickly, while the other gulls wonder if they can still snatch the fish.
Notice that the Gull is trying to swallow the fish ... whole. Unlike Osprey, who rip at the fish, gulls swallow the fish whole. These are not tiny fish. It was amazing to see.
The kind-of-gross part was after the fish was swallowed. The fish likely died fairly quickly, since it was now in stomach acid instead of water, but it didn't die immediately. As a result, it flopped around inside the gull, which showed in the throat. If you put your cursor over this next picture, it will swap to a picture of the (mostly) 'normal' throat vs. the fish-tail-extended throat.
I felt really bad for the fish, who not only had to avoid getting eaten by gulls, they then couldn't get up the river because of the gate.
Luckily this situation is only for a few days (well, the gate part; the gulls are around all the time). And as I mentioned above, some of the fish did find the ladder and make it up to the lake above. This little fish, moments after the picture was taken, made the last jump and was in the lake.
Splish Splash, I was taking a bath ...
After this action-packed page, lets move on to something quieter...
Updated July 2020
