All about Gulls

[Julie]

All about birds ~ Herring Gull ~ link here

Sounds of gulls on the link above....Gull calls can herald Springtime

Calls

American Herring Gulls have a rich repertoire of calls, each of which may be modified in different contexts and accompanied by different postures. For example, the long-drawn single note of their mew call is always accompanied by an arched neck, but serves to attract attention in contexts as diverse as courtship, chick feeding, nest approaches, or agitated aggression. Their characteristic ha-ha-ha-haalarm call may change to a plaintive yeow in flight or a yelping keowas the threat intensifies. That keow is highly individual and can serve as personal identification. When trumpeted more and more shrilly as the gull lowers and then raises its head, this becomes the gull's "long call," the most elaborate, variable, and individualized call in its repertoire. Both sexes make a repeated huoh-huoh-huoh in courtship, territorial disputes, and nest selection to indicate some version of "I'm not moving." It’s been called their “choking call” because the birds deliver the call while leaning forward, head down, and heaving upward as they call. Chicks beg for regurgitated food with a klee-ew call that they first peep while inside the egg. And adults use the same call in a softer "baby-talk" version during courtship or in exchanges when the male returns to take his turn on the nest.

The first question is, how did the seagull get its name? The common origin for the languages of the southern North Sea coast is the Proto-Germanic word maigwis ormaiwaz and the West-Germanic word maiwi, which is an onomatopoeia, meaning a word imitating sound (i.c. the animal makes). The verbs ‘to meow’ and ‘to mew’ have the same origin. In the Danish language the related verb is mjaver, in the Dutch language it is miauwen or mauwen, in the German language it is miauen, and in the Mid-Frisian (i.e. the province of Friesland) language it is miau(k)je.

The Danish word for gull is måge. In Dutch it’s meeuw, in German Möwe, and in Mid-Frisian meau or mieu, but also (see)kôb, kob(be), kôbel(er), mastersfûgels, ûnwaarsfûgels (i.e. thunderbirds) and ûnwaren (i.e. thunders). No idea why the Mid-Frisians have so many names for this bird. In North-Frisian (i.e. Landkreis Nordfriesland) a gull is called Kuben. In Platt or Oostfreesk (i.e. the region of Ostfriesland) it is Mööv. With the word mouette, this Germanic word even nestled itself into the French language. Please, do not tell the French.

The English name (sea)gull is different. The reason behind it, is that the word gull probably stems from Celtic speech, and is related to the Brittonic-Celtic word gwylanand to the Old-Celtic word voilenno or welenna. The Proto-Indo-European verb for ‘to wail’ or ‘to whine’, is wai. So, again, the English word gull is of origin an onomatopoeia, too. This makes the shore birds, in fact, wailers or whiners. This gives you also a new way of looking at Bob Marley & The Wailers. But this aside. The Old-English word for gull is, by the way, mæw. No further explanation needed.

This wailing, meowing, or crying of the seagull, brings us to its characteristic, contagious long-call. A sound for which they are often maligned because no matter how strong the storm rages, you can still hear them. Although every gull performs long-calls, the herring gull’s long-call stands out. It is a piercing sound and more high-pitched than, for example, the lesser black-backed gull. Long-calls are performed especially in early spring.

When a gull makes a long-call, the animal first leans forward with its folded wings spread slightly, and cries two to three times. Then it stretches its neck and directs its head up, sometimes even fully backward, and cries with its mouth wide open.

Link to more of the article on Seagulls

Janne de Vries (1901-1986)