http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-
seagulls1may01,1,6406815.story?coll=la-news-environment
May 1, 2004
DISPATCH FROM CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS
How Did a European Gull End Up in a Dump Like This?
That's the question that brings birders from all over to the J.C.
Elliott landfill.
By Lianne Hart, Times Staff Writer
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Larus michahellis is a large, yellow-legged
seagull, a European scavenger rarely seen in the United States. And
like gulls the world over, this bird likes to dine at garbage dumps,
dive-bombing for its meals in giant heaps of trash.
Which may be why a yellow-legged gull that veered wildly off course
last winter and landed on the Gulf Coast ended up feeding at the J.C.
Elliott landfill, a 92-foot-high pile of refuse on the outskirts of
town.
The gull's first-ever appearance in Texas has caused quite a stir in
birding circles, and an unexpected rise in tourism at the city garbage
dump.
Among the latest to make the pilgrimage were 16 bird enthusiasts, most
of them from California, who were touring southern Texas birding sites
recently. On a gorgeous day when others might have headed to the beach,
this group stood atop a mountain of buried waste and scanned the
bird-filled skies for a glimpse of the celebrity gull. Hats were
positioned against errant bird droppings. Plastic bags rolled like
tumbleweeds across the dirt, and a steady breeze helped disperse the
smell of rotting garbage.
It was a vacation stop not everyone would get excited about, said Nancy
Flagg, a pediatrician from Los Angeles. "When I tell people I'm going
birding, there's a long pause while they look at you like they feel
sorry for you," she said. "But it's exhilarating to see a bird in a
setting it's not supposed to be in. That really gets you going."
Spotting the foreign gull is no easy task. For starters, the bird is
less than a year old — still too young to have developed its yellow
legs. And with more than an estimated 60,000 native Texas seagulls
crowding the skies above the trash here each day, it takes a sharp eye
to find the wayward European.
Still, since the bird was first spotted in January, nearly 300 people
from as far away as South Africa have dropped by for a look.
Landfill manager Tony Benavides isn't sure why, but he is a genial
host, offering to drive visitors to prime viewing spots and supplying
them with bright orange safety vests. "Whatever rocks your boat," he
says, shrugging.
In three years, this landfill is scheduled to close, and a new one will
open farther inland, Benavides said. "I get paid to bury garbage, but I
worry about those birds. They don't know anything but this landfill for
food," he said. "I worry they'll go hungry."
By the looks of the fat, aggressive gulls, that hardly seems possible.
A 250-square-foot heap of freshly hauled trash is a scene from a
Hitchcock movie, a blur of white feathers and beaks swarming the
leftovers of 280,000 residents. "They sure like to eat," said
Benavides, watching the frenzy from his truck.
Not far from this superior dining spot, a local bird lover named Willie
Sekula first came across the yellow-legged gull during a nature outing.
At the time, he wasn't sure what he was looking at, but knew the bird
was special.
"I could tell it wasn't from here, so I started taking a lot of
pictures," he said. "I showed them to a friend who's a birder, and he
got all excited." The photos were sent to bird experts, who identified
the gull and speculated that a hurricane or storm had carried it to
Texas from as far away as the Azores or the Madeira islands.
Only a handful of yellow-legged gulls have ever been spotted in the
United States, Sekula said, and those landed on the East Coast. Sekula,
a 51-year-old chemist, now spends weekends and many weekdays at the
landfill to check on his find.
"My family thought I was nuts before, and this probably confirms it for
them," he said.
Some birders search all day and never see the gull, Sekula said. The
guides leading Flagg's group took an hour or so to find the bird, named
Gimpy because of some missing feathers on one ragged wing.
Isolated through the lens of a telescope, it was clear that the gull —
basking in the sun — was unlike the Texas variety. This bird was much
larger, and its handsome, gray-and-brown barreled chest appeared almost
checkered.
The Texas gulls ignored it.
Gimpy for a time seemed to be preening and posing for the crowd. The
bird then moved to a second and third location, giving visitors an even
better view. Finally, Gimpy raised its wings. Binoculars and cameras
moved in silent unison, following the gull's path until it disappeared
from sight.
"My vacation photos will be of me looking for birds in garbage dumps
and in the brush next to abandoned Porta-Potties," Flagg said. "But you
go where the birds are, and you always see something new and different.
It's an experience of a lifetime."
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