Under The Water

The best way to figure out what’s under the water is, see what the birds are catching!

Snowy Egret With Glass Shrimp

Glass Shrimp

Glass Shrimp are small shrimp and they are clear as glass. This makes them very hard to see underwater. But not for a snowy egret!

Smeagull Says,

"Get the Facts"

Shrimp are ancient animals, largely unchanged since the Cretaceous Period, 100,000,000 years ago.

Fossil Shrimp, Cretaceous Period, Hjoula, Lebanon

Herring Gulling with Spider Crab

Spider Crab

Spider Crabs are one of the crustaceans (animals with their skeletons on the outside) that can be found among the rocks. Spider Crabs are a favorite food for gulls.

Herring Gull Taking Hermit Crab from a Moon Snail Shell

Hermit Crab

Hermit Crabs are small crabs that look a lot like crayfish or tiny lobsters. They will find an abandoned moon snail or whelk shell and move in. Sometimes it protects them, sometimes it doesn’t.

Snowy Egret with Juvenile Tautog

Tautog

Tautog are a medium size fish, plentiful in midsummer. At that time, the young ones are small enough for egrets to capture and eat.

Great Egret with Young Sanddab

Sanddab

Sanddabs are a type of flounder and especially when they are still small, they are often taken by birds near the rocks and also in shallow water along the shoreline.

Juvenile Ring-billed Gull Taking Juvenile Menhaden ("Peanut Bunker")

Menhaden

Menhaden are a medium sized fish. When their young pour out of rivers towards the end of the summer, the gulls and cormorants come from all over to feed.

Juvenile Mehaden Close to Shore, Fleeing Striped Bass

Smeagull Says,

"Get the Facts"

Juvenile Menhaden are called “Peanut Bunker.” Somtimes as in the photo above, they are driven close to shore by schools of feeding Striped Bass.

Herring Gull with Atlantic Seahorse

Atlantic Seahorse

Atlantic Seahorses have heads and faces that resemble the head and face of a horse, which is how they get their common name, They can be found in tidal pools among rocks.

Smeagull Says,

"Get the Facts"

The Atlantic Seahorse has a hard outside surface called an exoskeleton. They probably do not offer a lot of nourishment. This herring gull must have been really hungry! But not that hungry. He let the seahorse go.

Great Egret with Eel

Eel

Eels are born in the Sargasso Sea, but come to our waters to grow to adulthood in rivers and ponds, and then return to the sea – If they are lucky!