My annual Hokkaido photography tour is a birding photographer’s paradise. Out on the pack ice, I witness an energetic drama with an interplay of Steller’s Sea Eagles and White-tailed Eagles being the main characters, but I want to discuss the behavior of one of the supporting avian participants, the Glaucous Gull, who like the Steller's Sea Eagle is migratory, the glaucous gull breeds in the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and winters south, from Japan, Europe, and North America, there even have been reports of them reaching Mexico. The Glaucous Gull is the second largest of the gull species, weighing up to nearly six pounds (2.7 kg) with a wingspan up to about 70 inches 5 foot 8 inches or a (180 cm), but when compared to the measurements of either of the eagles that it battles for fishing and hunting in the pack ice off the coast of Hokkaido, it is about 1/2 the size of its opponents. As a result, the Glaucous Gull has become a canny, opportunistic predatory bird and will raid nesting colonies of other birds to pick off eggs and chicks. They are known to fly above Ezo red foxes in Japan and even humans, hoping they will disturb feeding, allowing the Gull to swoop down during the distractions to grab a meal. When foraging water, they do not dive deep, usually just deep enough to snatch food from just below the surface. They will also attack other birds to steal their catches.
When the temperature drops, storms arrive in Hokkaido, these gulls easily survive the cold. Raptors and ravens tend to huddle up for warmth on dry land or some of the ice floes among the pack ice that will hold a group, but when there is a conflict, that is when the Glaucous Gull’s cunning is more evident. On a recent Hokkaido Photo Tour, I witnessed a Steller’s Sea Eagle and a White-tailed Eagle ferociously attacking each other over a fish that the Steller’s had just pulled out of the ocean, and rather than join the fray, the gull hovered in the air nearby the besieged eagles and waited for just…the….right….moment. As if sensing the two eagles were tired from their continued struggle, the gull got just a bit closer. Finally, the fish was dropped from the talons of the Steller’s, and in a flash, the gull landed over where the fish had hit the ocean, submerged to find the fish, and resurfaced while at the same time gulping down the fish to remove any evidence of what the gull had just done. These Gulls are one of the master opportunist Hunters.