Benthivorous Herring gulls

[Tommy Owens]

Recently there was some talk of gulls taking advantage of benthivorous ducks through kleptoparisitism. Today, I saw what appeared to be benthivorous Herring gulls at Fort Smallwood Park. There was a flock of 17 birds in the shallows by the swimming beach and three of them were diving from a floating position and surfacing with something in their beaks that they ingested. Has anyone else seen this behavior?

Tommy