Botanical Glossary - Home

Larus Argentatus - A very young Herring Gull still covered with downy feathers perches beside his nest in anticipation of lunch that is soon to be dished out by one of his parents. The nest is built on top of three large wooden, creosote soaked beams between two groups of pilings (with a floating dock between the two piling bunches) that are a permanent part of Gibson's Landing Marina on the Sunshine Coast. Walking underneath the wooden beams on the dock, a tall person can almost reach up and touch the bottom of the nest area.

The Herring Gull is common in our area and is seen mostly in coastal habitats, bays, beaches, parks, lakes, piers, farm lands and dumps. They are excellent scavengers and are likely to hang out where people carry on recreational activities waiting for hand outs from picnickers. The immature Herring Gull usually looses it's downy feathers by the first winter. First year younglings are recognized by relatively uniform dusky brown color, and a bill that is all dark in first winter, gradually becoming paler at base in second or third year until the beak is yellow with the telltale red spot near the tip of the lower beak. The gray mantel and wing tops are acquired when the gull reaches adulthood (usually after it's fourth year), as is the black wingtips and white spots.