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KLAMATH SEAGULLS arc really local they don't come clear from the ocean to feed hero where they're often seen
following plows and in seeded areas in farmers' fields. One larye local colony o gulls nested this year on the Unit 7-8
Dike on Lower Klamath Lake, just beyond the state line. An estimated 10,000 adult gulls made their homes hero the
past season, making 3,500 nests with two to four eggs per nest. Picture No. 1 (at top) shows the gull "hotel" on the
lower lake. Tulclake Kcfuge Mgr. Tom Horn says the gulls nesting here are of two main types the California (05 per
cent) and Ring Billed. The California is the most abundant breeding gull in this area, he says, and favors tho alkaline
lakes and marshes of Eastern Oregon and Northern California. That includes tho Klamath Basin, Malheur, Warner,
Goose and Clear Lakes. The Ring Billed in turn nests within the larger colonics of the Californians. Morn notes the
gulls are masters of flight, and are at home equally on water or land. He says that during nesting their unscrupulous
food habit is viewed with mixed feelings. When they harass young ducklings or when pheasant and other eggs are
found at gull nests, it takes
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no small restraint to not con
demn tho gulls to extinction,
or at least to a wildlife des
ert. However, Horn says, they
arc scavengers and clean and
glean from trash piles, gar
bage dumps and refuse. Milkf
bottle caps, orange peels and
small cut bones are found out
there on the Lower Lake. To
their credit,' too, Is tho fact
they feed on grasshoppers.
Their young are fed by re
gurgitation, and among the
enormous amount of insects
the hoppers arc prominent in
number.
It was the California gull,
Horn says, that destroyed the
Mormon .cricket . infestation
near Great Salt Lake in 1848
00. During farming seasons,
gulls follow plows, picking up
insects and mice, Young gulls
grow and obtain mastery of
the air very rapidly. .
Picture No. 2 shows adult
gulls in full flight. No. 3
shows a newly hatched young
one and two unhnlchcd eggs.
No, 4 is a small gull egg just
hatching. No, 5 shows newly
hatched gulls, and No, 6 is
a young one beginning to de
velop flight feathers.
All Photographs by Herald
and Nawi Staff Photographer
Don Kettlor.
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