On my annual Hokkaido Birding Tour, I photograph at least a dozen or two different species of birds, such as The Steller’s Sea Eagle, The White-tailed Eagles, The Red-Crowned Cranes, The Shima Enaga, The Pygmy Woodpecker. For the First Nations Peoples of Japan, the Ainu, the most revered bird and or Kamuy spiritual being, is the Blakiston's Fish Owl, which they say is the protector of their village and homes. I respect their beliefs as they are similar to mine, in which I was raised side by side with the First Nations People of Canada, the Cree peoples of Manitoba Canada.
SeaGulls sometimes overlooked while out on the pack ice among the more agile predators, the Glaucous Gull, which lives most of the year in the Arctic and migrates south for the winter, they compete for prey among the other winged inhabitants but is more of an opportunistic predator than an outright hunter. Glaucous gulls reach a wingspan of nearly 180 cm (72 inches) in length, so they are not the same as the pestering gulls often recorded in YouTube videos stealing bits of ice cream cones or a renegade chip from an unwary child on the deck of a tourist ferry, these are formidable birds, and if it were only their flocks populating the skies and pack ice of Hokkaido, they would be a force to be reckoned with, but they are not alone. The White-tailed Eagles and Steller’s Sea Eagles are dominant predators on the pack ice during my time spent their during my Hokkaido Photo Tours, and the open warfare between the two raptors species often turns into the topic of epic spartan poems. However, Glaucous Gulls are more canny than aggressive, and their sensibilities have evolved over the years spent just below the level of apex predation in Hokkaido. I have seen on several occasions the moment a Steller’s Sea Eagle strikes and pulls prey into its talons, a White-tailed Eagle challenge for the captured prey, and sometimes when the conflict is particularly vicious, the prey will drop onto the pack ice or into the ocean below the roiling aerial warfare. It is at the precise moment that the Glaucous Gull will surreptitiously swoop in and pilfer the Steller Sea Eagle’s prey, but the gull knows that the eagles will ultimately settle their scuffle and return to the area where they think the prey remains. Hence, the gull speedily devours the dropped fish to remove any evidence of its nefarious plan to feed at Eagles’ expense. I’ve attached the proof a photo of one such culprit in this newsletter gulping down a fish; wow, I always think truly a Gluten but survival of the fittest.